Don's Weekly, 2 December 2024: Part 2

by Donald Hill

Dec 02, 2024

(…continued from Part 1…)

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Western Luhansk

The Russian river crossing near Dvorichne (and not too far from Dvorichna) and the resulting bridgehead was limited to less than a kilometer, but it also hasn’t been pushed back by a counterattack. The lack of local reserves and counterattack capability is a leading cause of Ukrainian defenses failing.

The Russians bombarded eastern Kupiansk with rockets but there were no changes on the front lines. Russian trucks with fortification supplies have been moving into the area. Building and improving defenses should be standard practice for any army. A border brigade destroyed quite a few vehicles with thermal and explosive grenades.

The 60th Brigade stops Russian assaults south of Terny with mines, artillery and drones.

It was a small assault group attacking a thinly held defensive line in the vicinity of Torske. It eventually came down to one attacker against one defender. But it demonstrates the low density of combat units in most engagements.

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Siversk

The Russians hit Serebryanka with a salvo of rockets 7 km behind the front lines.

Over two months ago: Eight soldiers of the 4th Rubizh Brigade defended a position near Spirne from July 10th to September 16th. None of them had been in the military before 2022. They were surrounded for the last three weeks. They fought off a Russian platoon that was throwing grenades and trying to close on the position. One of them was killed and his body prevented other Russian grenades from killing them. The Russian assault team was destroyed. The young lieutenant was ordered to pull his men out, but they had to leave their dead friend behind. He was interviewed a day later.

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Bakhmut

The 24th Brigade destroyed 7 BMD-4s along the canal, mostly through remote mining.

A Russian drone flies at 4,000 meters altitude to avoid Ukrainian interceptor drones while the forests south of Hryhorivka is hit by MLRS. There were multiple airstrikes in the woods south of Chasiv Yar and in the town itself.

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Toretsk

There was little change in the front lines and most of the videos available were of brutally effective drone attacks. Then there was this drone attack on a Russian soldier.

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Pokrovsk

Drones from the 38th Marine Brigade eliminates eight Russians at the northern end of the bulge. The only movement in the front lines was south of Pokrovsk.

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Kurakhove

Russia continues to make slow progress through Kurakhove but it comes at a heavy cost in men and equipment. This video is a testament to the intensity of the fight.

The 37th Brigade uses artillery to stop a Russian attack outside Trudove.

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Velyka Novosilka

During Ukraine’s 2023 summer offensive, it took the Ukrainians six months to fight south from Neskuchne to Staromaiorske. Now, in just six weeks, Russia is just rolling over the territory from the east. This video shows the level of intensity of the Russian attacks from the east. It is not a horde that is attacking, but Ukraine is not able to establish and coordinate an effective defensive force to confront the advances.

West of Velyka Novosilka, the 20th Battalion of the Presidential Brigade stopped yet another assault. After the vehicles in a Russian assault were destroyed, a Queen Hornet drone carrying an automatic rifle was used on the infantry for the first time. The drone was hit a few times by ground fire but kept flying. The Wild Hornets have now delivered over 1000 Queen Hornets to the front lines. They are the largest FPV drones Ukraine has and they are constantly being modified and improved based on feedback from the front line users.

A video of drone attacks on the road south of Velyka Novosilka.

A Presidential Brigade drone team drops a thermite grenade onto a Russian tank that burns through the turtle armor and starts working on the turret armor.

A Russian vehicle is destroyed on the front lines, but that location is now 8 kilometers behind the Russian advance now.

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Kherson

At the mouth of the Dnipro river Ukrainian drones hit two Russian boats and a bunker.

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Crimea

The Russian “Podlet” radar operates in the S-band and can track 200 targets from 10 to 200 km away, and that range can be increased to 300 km in extended mast mode. It can detect targets at low and very low altitudes up to 10 km in height. It provides target locations to within 200 meters with an azimuth precision of 1.6 degrees. After acquiring the aerial target the data is passed to air defense systems which tracks and engages the target. Three Podlet radars were destroyed in Crimea last week, part of an ongoing campaign to blind Russian air defenses.

The following is a list of destroyed Podlet radars:

● 3 x Kherson- July 19 and 24, and November 13, 2022
● 1 x probably near Avdiivka- June 7, 2023
● 1 x Crimea- August 23, 2023
● 2 x Belgorod, Russia- November 1, 2023, and April 27, 2024
● 2 x Crimea- June 10th, August 23, 2024
● 1 x Krasnodar Krai, Russia- 21 September, 2024
● 4 x Crimea- October 23, November 28, and two on November 29, 2024