Posted on 01/09/2024 6:14:59 PM PST by dennisw
This weekend, an apparent Ukrainian rocket barrage reportedly blew up a rail bridge Russian workers were building south of Hranitne, 25 miles north of the Sea of Azov coast and 50 miles south of the front line in occupied southeastern Ukraine.
It’s one of the biggest under-reported events in months in a grinding war where logistics are everything. In reportedly dropping the incomplete span over the Kalmius River, Ukraine sets back—indeed, makes a mockery of—Russia’s efforts to improve its supply lines to its beleaguered forces in and around Crimea in southern Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians just shot a hole in a major Russian logistics initiative, and set back almost a half year of serious Russian supply planning,” wrote Stefan Korsha, a senior defense correspondent at Kyiv Post. The Russian military has three ways of moving large quantities of supplies from Russia proper to Russian forces in southern Ukraine: by ship into Crimea, by road and rail over the Kerch Bridge directly into Crimea, and by rail through southeastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainians have been attacking all three main supply lines ever since Russia widened its war on Ukraine starting in February 2022.
Ukrainian missiles and drone boats have damaged or sunk most of the Russian fleet’s supplies-hauling landing ships and made Crimean Ports very dangerous for the surviving vessels. Ukrainian bombs and missiles repeatedly have damaged the Kerch Bridge.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
And the main overland railway repeatedly loops north toward the front line, placing it well within range of Ukrainian howitzers. It’s no problem for Ukrainian gunners to strike passing trains or the rail lines themselves.
These attacks motivated the Russians to begin building a fourth supply line—a coastal railway that, while still within range of Ukraine’s rocket-artillery and deep-strike munitions, at least would get the trains out from under the howitzer barrages.
But that new railway must cross the Kalmius River, which threads south through Hranitne before dumping into the Sea of Azov in the ruins of the coastal city of Mariupl, under Russian occupation since early in the wider war.
Russian workers began building the Hranitne bridge in earnest in September 2023. The span may have been nearing completion when the Ukrainians finally targeted it, apparently this weekend and reportedly with 50-mile-range M30/31 GPS-guided rockets fired by U.S.-made High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems wheeled launchers: the vaunted HIMARS.
There was no reason the Ukrainians couldn’t have attacked earlier, Korsha pointed out.
“Anyone wishing to poke fun at Russian army decision-making would probably see a major Russian military engineering effort throwing a rail bridge over a river fully in range of Ukrainian precision-guided munitions, adjacent to a Ukrainian town the Russians had been mortaring and firing machine guns into for the last eight years, as less than brilliant planning,” he wrote.
bkmk
More Ukrainian egg on his face for Vlad The Impaler Putin. Today’s puffed up, pint size Dracula.
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This is a great TV series on Dracula aka Vlad The Impaler>>>>>>>
Rise of Empires: Ottoman
2020 | Maturity Rating:TV-MA | 2 Seasons | Documentaries
Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II wages an epic campaign to take the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and shapes the course of history for centuries.
Starring:Charles Dance, Cem Yiğit Üzümoğlu, Daniel Nuță
https://www.netflix.com/title/80990771
********** The real Vlad story is that he was a great military leader who took on the Ottoman Empire. This Dracula vampire drek was concocted by Irishman Brad Stoker. It has nothing to do with reality.
“was an Irish author who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.”
********** I started at season 2 of the above where it gets into the meat of Vlad vs the Ottoman Empire
Attacking supply lines is pretty much a no brainer. Don’t see why this is called a joke. Wait till it’s almost done then blow it up. Sure. Kinda like the River Kwai.
That's obviously why Russia still controls over 20% of the former Ukie land, and the Ukies are working on replacing their third army from the massive losses of the last two years.
So blowing up a little train really turns the disaster called Ukraine around in an instant -- NOT.
By the way, it's not "Ukrainian missiles and bombs." It's the best the US and NATO and their staff can throw at the Ruskies -- so far, with a total bust ('cause Russia still exists and controls all the land).
Just add it to the disasters we call Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan -- not to mention the trillions of dollars spent on our stupid wars and the debt created from same.
and yet Russia still can’t win the war
lol
Looks like the bridge is still viable.
Seems you have a hard-on for David Axe. You always acknowledge- denigrate Mr. Axe when I post a piece by him. Which is about once a month.
Desperate Russian Forces Are Sticking 80-Year-Old Naval Guns On 70-Year-Old Armored Tractors
Forbes ^ | Mar 4, 2023 | David Axe
People are dying and it's funny?
It’s them negative waves, Moriarty!
That’s awesome! The Kerch Bridge should have been dropped altogether a long time ago too.
Su-ure! It'll buff right out!
Regards,
Russia: We have taken one fifth of Ukraine from the Banderites.
Ukraine: Well, we blew up a bridge and it is hilarious, so there.
” Russian workers began building the Hranitne bridge in earnest in September 2023. The span may have been nearing completion when the Ukrainians finally targeted it,...”
That’s a construction rate that no-one in North America has seen since WW2.
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