Don's Weekly, 12 May 2025: Part 2
by Donald Hill
(…continued from Part 1…)
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Andriivka
In Kotliarivka, three Ukrainians corner a Russian in a building with just one entrance.
The combination of concertina wire, mines and drones eliminates Russian attacks on Troitske.
In between Andriivka and Oleksiivka, the 46th Airborne eliminates a motorcycle assault. After losing their transportation, some riders tried to take cover in the wrecks of a previous assault.
Bahatyr continues to be hit by Russian airstrikes. A motorcycle assault on the village was stopped with concertina wire, mines and drones. Russians that reached the east side of the village were hunted with drones.
7 km south of Bahatyr, an anti-tank ditch impedes the movement of both vehicles and infantry. Two infantry bring a ladder to climb their way out of it. A vehicle was meant to enter the ditch and remain there so the bridge on top could be used by vehicles and infantry, but it didn’t work out.
In Novoukrainka, a 105mm howitzer was protected against drones but was not camouflaged and easily detected, so the Russians used precision rounds to destroy it.
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Komar
Vilne Pole is bombarded.
A Russian airstrike on Novopil. A helicopter rocket attack tries to blast Ukrainian positions in front of Novopil.
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Zaporizhzhia
The 118th Brigade says that the occupier’s equipment is becoming scrap metal and their infantry is advancing behind it. This is 4 km south of Mala Tokmachka.
10 km behind the lines, a Russian 152mm howitzer is attacked with bombs.
A compilation of drone interceptions by multiple Ukrainian units.
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Kherson
Russian divers are infiltrating Ukrainian positions and could be bringing food and ammo to Russian positions. Jet skis and boats are quicker but are easy to detect and attack.
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Black Sea
Russia posted successful engagements with Ukrainian naval drones.
A lot of Russian drones approach over the Black Sea to hit Ukrainian cities. Small Ukrainian naval craft armed with guns and the inexpensive Vampire air defense systems are deployed 15 km from the coast to provide additional depth to Ukraine’s air defenses. Increasingly, drones fly at higher altitudes that can’t be reached by machine guns. They are not out of the 11000 meter range of the $22k APKWS rockets. With APKWS II missiles, the operator lazes the target and once the warhead locks on the missile it flies to the target on its own. Several Russian drones have been shot down with the Vampire system.
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Unknown Location
A Ukrainian fiber-optic drone navigates obstacles to chase a Russian soldier into a bunker.
A HIMARS is detected and within range of Russian firepower.
Three Russians standing in the open are detected and within range of Ukrainian firepower.
A Ukrainian Su-27 drops two bombs on a gun and its ammo supply with the expected results.
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Occupied Territories
Russia plans to continue their genocide by shipping 50,000 Ukrainian children to camps and schools in Russia ‘for summer vacation and re-education’. 20,000 children had already been forcibly removed by 2023. The older boys were forced to fight in the Russian army.
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Russia
A new distance record for Ukrainian drone attacks was recorded in Nadym. On May 7th, targets in Tula, Saransk, Krasnoarmeysk and air bases in Kubinka and Shaikovka were hit. Russia claims it shot down 524 drones, 5 Neptune missiles, 6 JDAM bombs and 2 HIMARS rockets in one day, which is a record claim. Since the beginning of May, Russia claims it shot down 1,500 drones, which is also a record. An analyst that has been tracking Russian air defense decoys said that air defense systems in the far east are being replaced by crude decoys and these crude decoys are eventually being replaced by improved decoys.
2600 km from the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian drone activity in the area of the Nadym airport shut down air traffic for a few hours. Russia said they shot down 26 drones. Possible targets or damage to the targets was not disclosed. The major industry in the town of 45,000 is natural gas production.
In Tula, the SPLAV plant that produces MLRS was hit, as was the Instrument Design Bureau JSC that designs and manufactures automatic grenade launchers, submachine guns, pistols, autocannon and other weapons.
Two targets were also hit within 15 seconds of each other in Saransk. Russia’s only optical fiber plant was hit a month ago and again last week. Before it was attacked, the facility used western equipment to produce 4 million km of cable a year. Any damage to the equipment may be difficult to repair or replace. The main building was attacked again as was another facility.
The Basalt plant in Krasnoarmeysk built bombs before it was hit. Seven explosions and a fire were reported by local residents but the extent of the damage is unknown.
The Strela plant in Suzemka is 10 km from the Ukrainian border in Bryansk. It produces radars and other electronics and was hit for the second time in six months.
In Chita airbase, Siberia, a grass fire was threatening the base's helicopters.
Last year, Russia produced 2 million shells in 2024 and received 2.7 million from North Korea. They are building an explosives plant that will be operational anywhere from six weeks to the end of 2025. It will produce 6,000 tons of explosives a year, which is enough to fill 1.28 million 152 mm shells. It is located 3000 km from Ukraine but their drones have already reached targets 2600 km away.
Russian railway workers were hit by a 50% pay cut. Many are leaving for factory and army jobs that pay better. Some locations have a 40% shortage in personnel but there is a ban on hiring to save money. With all this, the company claimed it was making a profit and managers paid themselves a bonus while cutting the bonus for workers.
Russian railroads had 6.1% fewer loads in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same time period in 2024. Coal loads were only down 2% but construction materials and grain were down 23% and 30.8%, respectively. In April, loading dropped another 8.6% and it is expected that the loading volumes will continue to decline in the second quarter. But the coal companies themselves failed to provide 30% of the contracted amounts and the number of idle railway wagons that still had to be maintained reached 295,000. There is a possibility that the coal and rail industry could collapse at some point.
A former Russian deputy minister of energy talks about the Russian economy.
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Ukraine
On the night of May 6th, Russia launched 4 ballistic missiles and 142 drones that struck Zaporizhzhia, and the Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kherson, and Dnipro regions.
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(…to be continued…)
Thank you Don for the report. As long as his Army is advancing, I don't see Putin agreeing to anything. Counterattacks are missing, as you say> Ukraine must find a way to do this.
Russian railroads would not "collapse", because it's a state company and Russia depends very much on in. But it's services would gradually decline. And Russia gov. would have compensate the losses somehow, maybe covertly how they are doing with e.g. banks already.