Don's Weekly, 12 May 2025: Part 1

by Donald Hill (intro by Tom Cooper)

Hello everybody!
Sorry for delay with today’s issue of Don’s Weekly: just another of ‘Frenzy Mondays’…
If one is still naive enough to follow this war via the mainstream media, impression is that it’s now ‘down to cease-fire’ and ‘negotiations’, and only a matter of ‘minutes’ before it’s over.

Actually, this war is going on and the Russian onslaughts on Ukrainian civilians growing massive almost by day. Which is why one needs to keep an eye on latest developments. Thus, lets go straight to Don’s reconstruciton of the last week.

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Kursk

Ukraine conducted another minor incursion into Kursk, taking a street of the village of Tyotkino just over the border. A house was hit by a Ukrainian airstrike. Also in the village, and only 3500 meters from the border, Russian armor was detected taking shelter in a building so drones were sent inside. Two T-72’s inside were at least damaged and a BMD outside was destroyed. A trio of Russian airstrikes and a Ukrainian airstrike at the beginning of the incursion. Ukrainian engineering and MRAP vehicles are destroyed by drones and mines.

Ukraine moves an engineering vehicle to the border and creates a small breach at Novy Put. They did not move through the breach. Russia claims they eliminated an engineering vehicle and tank but there is nothing to support their claim.

Some very dramatic music is used to show a Ukrainian flag on a tower near the monastery.

A radar with a 300 km range was destroyed. As a bonus, two flamethrower systems were also destroyed.

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Kharkiv

It had been a while since the last Ukrainian offensive operation in this sector but the 13th Khartia Brigade advanced 1500 meters through the same frontage. A couple months ago it was announced that the 13th Brigade will be an anchor brigade in a corps.

6 km south of the Hlyboke, Ukraine loses a BMP.

In Vovchansk, a Russian position under a bridge on the Vovcha river is discovered.

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Kupiansk/Terny

Butusov addresses longstanding issues that are threatening this front and are present throughout the army.

Units should receive replacements immediately after suffering casualties. Instead, the size of the units are allowed to shrink. Reserves that were being used to counterattack and restore the front line are then used to plug the gaps in the line. Then the losses continue, more gaps appear, and the Russians are able to penetrate. Without a reserve to counterattack, the Russians can then hold onto their advances in places where they had been held in check for months. Only then do units receive reinforcements.

For years, the Ukrainian military leadership responded to any crisis by detaching battalions from brigades and sending them up to hundreds of kilometers away to plug a gap. This resulted in a disorganized mix of brigades and battalions that degraded operational capabilities and is increasing the difficulty of extracting these units to form corps without collapsing the front. Adding to that problem, the 66th is in the middle of the 3rd Corps frontage and the army leadership will not allow it to join the 3rd Corps. This hinders the formation of the 3rd Corps and the unified operations that will increase effectiveness.

He states that the operational and tactical groups in the area are defending as best they can and are informing their superiors of the situation and their needs, primarily for replacements. Instead of sending replacements and planning defensive operations, senior army leadership threatens to fire the local unit leaders. The failures of senior leadership are directly responsible for Russian advances but the blame is placed on the subordinate leaders.

Please be so kind: nobody tell us we didn’t tell you so - and that at least in September-October the last year, if not much earlier - or, that we ‘depend on Butusov’ or whoever else in Ukraine.

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Siversk

An infantry assault force (crutches optional) advanced 3 km across open fields before a Ukrainian BMP and drones finished them off.

1600 meters south of Novoselivka and 6 km from the front lines, an abandoned Ukrainian ATV was destroyed, probably after a logistical run.

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Chasiv Yar

Another Russian TOS bombardment in Shevchenko, a kilometer from Chasiv Yar.

A HIMARS vehicle is detected while firing and within range of Russian firepower. It was only 10 km from the front line and was the fourth one destroyed. The best way to avoid counter battery fire by drones is to make sure you are not observed. I don’t know if Ukraine conducts threat analysis of the electromagnetic spectrum prior to each mission or if friendly use of frequencies are coordinated as part of that analysis, but that would be an appropriate corps responsibility if they were established.

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Toretsk

At the beginning of the year, Russia had advanced up to Novospaske*. Over the next two months, the Azov Brigade pushed them back and cleared Leonidivka before stopping. A month ago, Russia brought in reinforcements and started advancing along a broad front centered on Romanivka. The advance eventually recaptured Leonidivka. From there, Ukrainians in Novospaske were hit by drones. drove two kilometers into Novospaske, harassed by shelling and drones. Russians from that assault group or others must have survived because Ukraine conducted an MRL bombardment on northern Novospaske.

Elsewhere, Russia uses precision artillery rounds on this mine 2500 meters northwest of Toretsk and Russian communication devices are destroyed by drones.

GRAPHIC: A Ukrainian mechanized assault drove a kilometer through enemy positions, straight to the center of Toretsk. There doesn’t seem to be any support for their attack. Five vehicles were destroyed. One Ukrainian was taken prisoner. The rest were probably killed.

Nothing known about this operation is making any kind of sense. Therefore, we would like to invite the responsible ZSU officer to get in touch and explain his intentions and motivations, but especially to explain how and why was he feeling so much better after ordering it. Discretion is guaranteed.

*Following independence in 1991, many Soviet and some Russian geographical names were changed to Ukrainian names. Following the 2022 open invasion, the effort to de-Russify names was increased and in the last and this year, many locations received new names. Petrivka became Novospaske. Not all maps have been changed and it is near-certain we will make many mistakes out of ignorance. Sorry for this.

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Pokrovsk

Ukraine secured the small village of Lysivka but the eastern flank remains unstable. After the small breakthrough at Tarasivka, there were no effective counterattacks to restore the defenses or limit the advance. Eventually, reinforcements will arrive to slow and then stop the advance, but the Russian advances between Tarasivka and Toretsk will likely continue until the lines are straightened out.

Every time there is an advance, it puts additional pressure on the flanks of the advance. This is why there needs to be a local reserve within the brigade to counterattack any Russian advance immediately. And then there needs to be a corps reserve to provide timely support to any brigade under pressure. Until the Ukrainian army establishes these capabilities, the slow advances of the Russian army will continue at one location or another.

A BTR fires on Russian positions in eastern Novoserhiivka at night.

An odd scene in Novovasylivka. And 2km from the front lines, a motorcycle rider is attacked by a drone bomb.

Ukraine bombs what they say is a battalion headquarters in Novohrodivka, 4 km behind the front lines.

Russian attempting to enter eastern Malynivka are targeted.

Russia dismounts infantry in the ruins of southern Novo Poltavka. Their drones attacked Ukrainian positions in the north and south of the village, and they dropped bombs three kilometers west of the village.

Russia is targeting all large buildings within 10km of the front lines. The aim is to demolish any kind of building potentially occupied by Ukrainian command- and logistics elements.

Russian logistical vehicles have been suffering growing losses to drone attacks. Therefore, they are erecting tunnels with fish netting to protect them. Tunnels made with chain-link are stopping the drones but causing them to explode. Tunnels with fish netting are entangling the drones without explosions. A major tunnel is being constructed on the E50 highway.

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(…to be continued…)