Don's Weekly, 2 December 2024: Part 1

by Donald Hill

Hello everybody!

If the last week was ‘exciting’ in Syria, the same is valid for developments in Ukraine, of course. To our luck, while I was busy with the former, good Donald kept monitoring the later and thus here we are: the next issue of Don’s Weekly is ready!

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Kursk

Up front: mind that a paragraph with a number has the location of the incident marked on the following map.

A house in Tyotkino occupied by the FSB is hit by a Ukrainian airstrike.

The 225th Battalion was moved to Novy Put and defeated repeated assaults over two days. Here are the results from just one road.

1) One battalion of the 36th Marine Brigade fights the Russian assaults in the vicinity of Darino. A Marine in that battalion had been worrying about impending Russian attacks since two divisions and two brigades were nearby. On Tuesday, a Russian column moved south from Zelyonyi Shlyakh. His company destroyed six armored vehicles with remote mines and drones, and other members of his battalion two tanks.

2) Just south of Novoivanovka, two disabled armored vehicles are finished off by the 82nd Brigade.

2500 meters south of Novoivanovka, the Russian 106th VDV shelled the defensive positions of a rifle battalion from the 1st Tank Brigade. One soldier looks at the damage after surviving the near misses.

3) Three kilometers northeast of Novoivanovka a Ukrainian APC picks up a squad that is being rotated out. In a textbook case, the ramp on the M113 would be dropped, the squad would move in two at a time, and the squad would be on the APC in ten seconds. Instead, they open the door and try to enter one at a time. A mortar round lands nearby so they know they’re under observation, but they’re still not on board 18 seconds later when a drone bomb lands. Now some are wounded and the ramp finally comes down 21 seconds after the M113 arrived. They have trouble dragging the wounded on board and at the 48 second mark another drone bomb lands. At the 57 second mark they still have two wounded lying on the ramp. Another wounded soldier is trying to climb onto the ramp but the APC starts to drive and he falls off. The ramp partially closes with the wounded still on it, with the open door swinging below. I understand there could be confusion between the squad and the driver, but 40 seconds after driving off and leaving the wounded man they still haven’t turned around to pick him up.

It’s possible they returned after the video stopped. It was friendly territory so they had some options. This was a good example of how a routine situation can turn into a pressure-packed situation in a short time. It’s also why routine loading drills should be practiced and executed with discipline even if there doesn’t appear to be a threat.

4) Four kilometers west of Pogrebki, four soldiers of the 4th Ranger Regiment ambushed six Russians on a golf cart. Three were killed in the vehicle and a fourth died on the ground. The two survivors took cover behind the golf cart until a drone finished them off and burned the cart. The ambushing Rangers then withdrew. Four Ranger regiments have been formed since March and are part of a Ranger Corps, but they don’t fight as a corps.

The 95th Brigade collected some prisoners from Russia’s 810th Marine Brigade.

Ukrainians leave a position after a near miss from a Russian drone in Martynovka.

6) A high altitude Russian reconnaissance drone spots a stationary Ukrainian armored vehicle and calls in artillery. The only shot shown lands nearby. Damage to the vehicle is unknown.

A drone operator from the 129th Territorial Defense Brigade destroys a BMP near Plyokhovo from his fighting position. The 129th has since been rotated out and replaced by a National Guard unit, the 17th Brigade.

A long distance and close up view of the ATACMS strike on Khalino airfield. The S400 that tried to shoot down the missiles was hit.

Back in September a Russian Ka-52 crashed east of Novoivanovka.

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Kharkiv

Before the 92nd Brigade moved to Kupiansk they were killing Russian vehicles in the Hlyboke area.

The 101st Brigade by Starytsia (west of Vovchansk) destroys Russian vehicles and personnel with well-aimed drone drops.

22 km northeast of Vovchansk a drone destroys a Russian Buk-M1 air defense vehicle at night.

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(…to be continued…)