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.
What happened to air cover, reconnaissance, logistics, and planning?
Are the Russians really this stupid?
Or is this another fake news hit piece?
It could go either way.
I’ve tried digging into the news a lot regarding this war and it is very difficult to filter out the propaganda from facts
For every true story there are about five fake ones regarding the same topic.
The Slavic Eastern Europeans culturally have no compunctions about lying and feeding disinformation. Just look at their history.
Patton called them Mongols. That might be closer to reality than we realize.
Welcome to the new Russian Navy
#36. I think that answered the question.
Battalion Tactical Groups, Батальонная тактическая группа, or batal'onnaya takticheskaya gruppa, are the main Russian army unit size. BTGs as they are not are part of reforms by Sergei Shoigu implemented in 2009.
Gone now. Back to Division, Brigade and so no BTGs.
Talk to any Russian Mil officer and ask about BTG, and they will look at you funny. Never heard of them they would reply, despite what you imagine.
The putative BTG structure does not exist as found in Mechanized Infantry Brigades.
by Sergei Shoigu implemented in 2009.
—
Is this the same Defense Minister that has never served in the Russian Army, who wears commemorative medals and coins on his uniform?
The same Defense Minister who’s “reform” mentioned was done away with in the following years, 2012-2020, because there was now seen a need for large units again? Those small units were the product of no large scale, intense wars in 80 years (WWII). Small units were not suited to large scale wars, and so the RGF brought back Army, Division, Brigade, and Battalion.
For example, the major RGF forces in play are the 20 Army, the 8th Army, and the 58th Army - with the 1st and 2nd Army Kores, which are not really part of the RGF. They may be from the Russian National Guard, directly under V. Putin command.
This war is a poorer WWII, but still intense and large scale necessitating large unit sizes. That said, when many units are attrited, there is a mix and match military chaos, like the disastrous river crossing a few days ago where from the number of vehicles destroyed there may have been two detached battalions of Mechanized Infantry worth of equipment wiped out.
It is clearly visible in this photo
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It doesn't seem to have been very effective
The Ukrainians probably did not spot that bridge my guess is that US intelligence did.
Perhaps. Either way, the Russian army looks less and less like even a regional power.
The USA is a real super power with Tech other nations can only dream about. With the USA supplying them with everything but boots on the ground Russia is doomed unless it goes nuclear. Every victory we deliver to the Ukraine brings us closer to a tactical nuclear war. Witch could easily go global. Personally I don’t give a damn about a completely corrupt Ukraine’s eastern border. I care about our southern border. But then I’m a MAGA person not a warmongering neocon.
“Russian troops are not motivated - I feel sorry for those boys”
Then you don’t know what they do when they are there or are evil.
Perhaps you can raise care packages for them
Ever since this conflict began, Russian units have been called BTGs, not divsions. Their reported sizes and command and control matches battalion size, not divsion size.
This is not a semantic differnce. It affects the command, control and logistics. This distinction affects how to interpret how well the Russian army is functioning.
See May 7th:
War in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP2QApi8G2TKc8NZmeDWSUg/videos
That’s reactive armor. Those packages are supposed to contained a shaped explosive charge that detonates before the incoming projectile penetrates the armor below, and then the blast redirects the force away from the tank.
The problem is, it seems some of the tank commanders were selling the explosives in those packages, or perhaps they were never delivered. Some after-action photos shows the packages were actually filled with egg cartons instead.
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