Posted on 05/12/2022 8:12:19 AM PDT by Cronos
The aftermath of the Russian attempt to cross the Siverskyi Donets River.
The better part of a Russian army battalion—50 or so vehicles and up to a thousand troops—in recent days tried to cross a pontoon bridge spanning the Siverskyi Donets River, running west to east between the separatist provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian artillery caught them at the river bank—and destroyed them. The rapid destruction of around three dozen tanks and other armored vehicles, along with the bridge itself, underscores Russia’s deepening woes as its troops try, and fail, to make meaningful gains in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
“We still assess Russian ground force in the Donbas to be slow and uneven,” an unnamed U.S. Defense Department official told reporters on Tuesday. The Russians’ inability to cross rivers might explain their sloth.
The Siverskyi Donets, which threads from southern Russia into eastern Ukraine then back into Russia, is just one of several water barriers Russian battalions must cross in order to advance west into Ukrainian-held territory. According to the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff, the battalion that got caught at the pontoon bridge apparently was trying to strike at Lyman, a city of 20,000 that lies 17 miles west of the doomed crossing.
The Ukrainian army’s 17th Tank Brigade spotted the bridge, perhaps using one of the many small drones that function as the army’s eyes over the battlefield. The 17th is one of the army’s four active tank brigades. Its line battalions operate T-64 tanks and BMP fighting vehicles. But it was the brigade’s artillery battalion with its 2S1 122-millimeter howitzers that apparently got first crack at the Russian bridge.
The 17th’s shelling destroyed at least seven T-72 and T-80 tanks, 17 BMPs, seven MT-LB armored tractors, five other vehicles and much of the bridging unit itself, including a tugboat and the pontoon span.
It’s unclear how many Russians died or were wounded, but it’s worth noting that no battalion can lose three-quarters of its vehicles and remain capable of operations. In one strike, the Ukrainians removed from the battlefield one of the roughly 99 Russian battalion tactical groups in Ukraine.
In the aftermath of their defeat, local Russian forces are sticking to their side of the river, “trying to hold positions on the right bank,” according to the general staff in Kyiv. The disastrous river-crossing comes as Russian forces also are retreating away from the city of Kharkiv, farther north.
To be fair to Moscow, crossing any water obstacle during wartime is dangerous. The Ukrainians can claim perhaps the most lopsided victory over an enemy bridging effort, but the Russians have knocked out some Ukrainian spans, too.
Putin - the destroyer of Russia
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Two hundred years later Napoleon is laughing.
Don’t be silly, this was merely a feint.
Also keep in mind that Ukraine and NATO are keeping losses of Ukrainian troops and equipment quiet, while overemphansizing Russian losses.
They should have hired some coyotes to get them across the river,
Also Russia doesn’t care how many of their soldiers die, especially if they are CSTO “volunteers” from Central Asia (such as Kazakhstan), and their old Soviet era equipment.
“...the Ukrainians removed from the battlefield one of the roughly 99 Russian battalion tactical groups in Ukraine.”
Only 98 to go.
Nice shooting, boys.
L
Boys and Girls Clubs of Senegal???
Seriously?
The Ukrainians - very wisely given the initial imbalance of forces - are letting the Russians' own wasting of combat power slowly start tipping that balance in Ukraine's favor.
Over and over, the photos show destroyed Russian tanks that are minus the turrets.
Yesterday i saw a photo of such a tank, the T 90, I think, that had some sort of wire mesh or fencing around the bottom of the turret.
The mesh was likely Molotov cocktail deflectors. That indicates such a cocktail could spread gas under and then inside the turret
Aaha...... a Russian sympathizer in our midst
Putin is a KGB thug with no military experience.
Russian generals must hate his guts.
C’mon, generals, do the right thing.
but the key point is that they are motivated to survive - like the Vietnamese against the Chinese in the 70s war.
Russian troops are not motivated - I feel sorry for those boys
Looks like the only thing that is going to keep the skies cleared of micro drones is going to be directed energy weapons - i.e. lasers. Or maybe anti-drone drones that take out other drones.
Interesting times we live in.
Ukrainians should drop leaflets inviting the Russians to surrender.
The better part of a Russian army battalion - 50 or so vehicles and up to a thousand troops ... The 17th’s shelling destroyed at least seven T-72 and T-80 tanks, 17 BMPs, seven MT-LB armored tractors, five other vehicles and much of the bridging unit itself, including a tugboat and the pontoon span.
—
Only 3 tanks destroyed in the images - where are the other 4 destroyed tanks of the 60 each Mechanized Battalion has? Previously destroyed surely but how many remained to make the crossing?
Depending on the type of Battalion it would have 42-49 BMPs (82s or 2s) so 17 were destroyed.
Mechanized Battalions have between 540-460 troops, depending of battalion make up. Unless it was 2 battalions, there would not have been a 1000 troops.
This is the media making much of a relatively minor incident of no real military significance
The Russian army is tightly controlled and frequently debased by Russia’s rulers. Even Russian mafia shakes down Russian commanders at their bases, just like that Monty Python sketch. Good generals are deliberately removed for fear they might develop political aspirations. Soldiers are systematically tortured and even raped by their officers, as gulag culture prevails in the military Russia’s Soviet structures wanted.
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