Posted on 02/09/2023 8:24:53 AM PST by marcusmaximus
Russia’s widely-anticipated winter offensive has begun. Aiming to extend its control over eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, Russian troops are attacking north and south of Donetsk city.
In the northern sector, around the city of Bakhmut, the Russians slowly are advancing—albeit at staggering cost.
In the south, around Vuhledar, the Russians’ losses are just as steep—but they’ve made no clear gains that could justify the casualties. Vuhledar is turning into a meatgrinder for the Russian army, with enormous implications for the wider offensive.
The latest Russian attack on Vuhledar—a town with a pre-war population of just 14,000 that lies a mile north of Russian-held Pavlivka, 25 miles southwest of Donetsk—kicked off on Monday.
Seemingly a couple of battalions of Russian mechanized troops, together riding in a few dozen T-80 tanks and BMP-1 and BMP-2 fighting vehicles, advanced north.
The Ukrainian army’s elite 72nd Mechanized Brigade is entrenched around Vuhledar. It has laid minefields along the main approaches from Pavlivka. Its drones surveil the front. Its artillery is dialed in.
The Russians know this. And the assault force took rudimentary precautions. Tank crews injected fuel into their exhausts to produce smokescreens. At least one T-80 carried a mine-plow.
But leadership and intelligence failures—and Ukraine’s superior artillery fire-control—neutralized these measures. The Russian formation rolled into dense minefields. Destroyed tanks and BMPs blocked the advance. Vehicles attempting to skirt the ruined hulks themselves ran into mines.
Panicky vehicle commanders crowded so tightly behind the smoke-generating tanks that Ukrainian artillery, cued by drones, could score hits by firing at the head of the smoke. The Russians’ daylong attack ended in heavy losses and retreat. The survivors left behind around 30 wrecked tanks and BMPs.
Vuhledar is further evidence of the downward spiral in Russian military effectiveness.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
LOL as Bakhmut falls. You propaganda has expired.
Great news! Now all the NATO countries that promised tanks can keep them at home!
“LOL as Bakhmut falls. You propaganda has expired.”
My first thought too! They save a town of maybe 200 people (in the past, that is), and lose a town of 70,000+ people. Not a bad trade for Russia!
Yeah. Ukraine is “winning” which is why they just lowered the military recruitment age to 16. They are drafting old men and young boys. That’s a winning combination for a victorious military.
Written almost as if the CIA wrote it.
LOL
knew the Russian offensive would fail
right on schedule!!
Name ONE EXPERT who predicted that Russia would still be bogged down in Donbas a YEAR after first in invading the much smaller Ukraine!
So has yours:
“Once Ukrainians take over Kherson”
I can’t tell if you are serious. Next time maybe include the /s tag.
13 posted on 9/8/2022, 12:53:35 PM by JoSixChip
“They are drafting old men and young boys. That’s a winning combination for a victorious military.”
It’s what the Russians did in WWII.
hard to tell the footage from the movie sometimes
Alexander Nevzorov’s Grozny footage and his film Purgatory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVFjgyp6Aqo
Jo - you wrote on 9th Feb
“LOL as Bakhmut falls. “
It’s over a month later and no, it hasn’t fallen yet.
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