Don's Weekly, 20 April 2026: Part 1
by Donald Hill (intro by Tom Cooper)
Hello everybody!
This time, my plot was simple: I take a ‘few days off’ - off the blog, not of working, of course - and don’t tell anybody.
It worked.
Kind of.
It worked for one war, not for another. You see, the disagreements over the opening hours of the Hormuz Strait are perfectly understanding - especially considering the USA have English as official language, and Iran the Farsi.
It didn’t work for a number of Russian oil facilities hit by Ukrainian attack UAVs, though, nor for the VSRF troops rushed to assault positions of the Ukrainian 24th Mechanised Brigade… where language differences have played a slightly lesser rolle, and which reminds me that, actually, the 24th was supposed to be destroyed by the Wagner PMC, at Popasna, back in April-May 2022…
Somehow, four years later, it’s the Wagner PMC that’s no more…. ironically so, considering all the efforts by the Russians. And by Syrsky.
Sigh… at least the War in Ukraine is still going on, and thus there’s still hope…
…or not? Thinking of it, it does appear as if there is no hope, simply because nothing works in warfare any more, doesn’t it?
See this: Pudding launched his 3-Days Special Military Operation in Ukraine, and this became a 4-years-war of attrition, with no end in sight. Then Zele & Syrsky launch a destruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces - and the ZSU is still around. Then Babe destroys Hamas, and Hamas is still around. Then Babe destroys Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is still around. Then Babe prompts that clueless IQ47 to launch his 3-Days Special Military Operation, and not only is the IRGC still around, but IQ47 can consider himself happy to extricate out of the resulting fracas with some sort of a cease-fire. No end of the crisis, though. Nor of the IRGC. Even more so because Babe’s hordes - regardless how exhausted - continue enthusiastically genociding Palestinians, and bombing southern Lebanon…
Which, in turn, reminds me that… oh, come on, hand on heart, you ignorants: admit it! Admit that none of you is paying attention about all the pains the lovely idiotic regime of the United Arab Emirates is going through. How unfair - considering how endless are the same. See here: first they’ve paid the Russians - whom the IRGC prompted to launch a military intervention in Syria - to go on and continue mass-murdering Syrians. The Russians only managed to drive a few million out of the country and cause the ‘refugee crisis’ of Europe in 2015-2016, but not to destroy the insurgency… Then the Emiratis have paid the IRGC and the Russians to topple the internationally recognised government of Libya. The jerks managed to enter Tripoli, but not to complete their task… Then they’ve paid the RSF to topple the military junta in Khartoum. The RSF only managed to bring about 40% of the country under control, and instigate a genocide of the population in Darfur…. Then they were organising the Southern Transitional Council of Yemen to overrun the Saudi-supported Yemen National Army… and what happened? The Saudis bombed the Emiratis out of the country. And now, they’ve so nicely, and secretly joined the US-Israel coalition to bomb Iran while mimicking an innocent victim of the terrorist IRGC-regime… and still, even this has mis-fired…
Simply horrific. And so unfair. Poor little Emiratis. Sniff… Ten years of screwing up all over the Greater Middle East, in cooperation with and in best traditions of Israel, and they’ve barely managed to earn themselves the title of peace-makers for arranging Pudding’s scam-Easter-cease-fire… What a surprise, as soon as this was over, the Emiratis cancelled all the cooperation in defence affairs - with Ukraine…
But wait. Thinking of it, I’m beginning to understand. Actually, I was too blind and biased to see the obvious: the fact that all the responsible idiots listed above have a very humanitarian objective. Indeed, that their objective is to teach humanity that hundreds of billions and all the weaponry are useless when the strategy is, at most, resembling a plot for a 3rd rate Bollywood movie…?
Why not? Obviously, that’s far more effective than the useless United Nations. An organisation created to maintain peace… haha… what a joke. Better to abandon and disband it. And, while at that, we should also abandon the rules of road traffic. Actually, this is meanwhile a must: alone because of the last year’s death toll…
Sounds too brutal? Like a bad joke? Don’t worry: the reality is worse. Especially in Ukraine. There, and thanks to Fedorov, but especially the GenStab ZSU, by now it’s clear that there is a solution for all this. Or, at least for Zele and Syrsky’s problems. And not just one: several of them. One, more heroic than the other. One continues boasting with high percentages of intercepts of the Russian attack UAVs, while ignoring the Russian attack UAVs demolishing the Chernihiv Thermal Power Plant, or the Shakhtarska electrical substation… One boasts about immense Russian losses, while ignoring the falls of Siversk and Pokrovsk. Finally, one replaces human troops by robots - whether AI-controlled UAVs, or armed mini-tractors - but does not replace the top commander, and then one wonders about results, about how comes Ukraine is back to heroically losing terrain, like north-west of Pokrovsk and in south-eastern Zaporizhzhya…
Over to Don…
Overview
The front lines are nearly static… with a typical, slow Russian progress in some sectors. ‘Traditionally’ for this war: March-April are the months with the least of major changes in the flow of the ‘front lines’. The Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian air defenses continue. Ukraine’s long-ranged drones continue their attacks in Russia and an oil terminal that was untouched in the recent Baltic Sea attacks was set on fire.
And there’s a new Ukrainian drone is attacking Russian logistics and does not seem to be affected by EW.
Sumy
There was a moderate intensity effort along a 40 km wide sector that gained as much as 3 km of ground for Russia. Most of the operation was conducted by infantry but three Russian AFVs were destroyed trying to cross the border.
Russians emerge from a pipeline in large numbers but are eliminated by the 71st Airmobile brigade. They advertise their efforts when asking for water pumps.
35 km from the front, a civilian car was hit at a gas station by a drone in Sumy, killing one and injuring another.
Ukraine will suffer from unexploded munitions for the next two centuries. Sappers are constantly trying to reduce the threat. This week they found 87 munitions in Sumy Oblast, and 316 since January.
Vovchansk
The dam on the Pechinigsk reservoir was attacked 50 km from the front lines with a bomb. If it was breached, 45,000 people would have been flooded.
80 km from the front, a Kasta 2E radar is hit.
Kupiansk
The Russians continued to push west from Pishchane, and many Russians made it into Kupiansk from the north. The lack of obstacles allow the Russians to make these 5-7 km penetrations. It’s very difficult to install simple wire obstacles when Russian drones are such a deadly threat.
In Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, four Russians were killed. Two more ran into a building. They were offered surrender, which one accepted. The other met his fate in the second-story window of a burning building.
A Russian airstrike northwest of Kupiansk.
Sloviansk
The Russians enter Kalenyky. Russia is still advancing but the pace slowed last week. Two Russian trucks are destroyed 17 and 35 km behind the front lines.
Kostiantynivka
The Russian attacks are relentless because they sense they’ll get a foothold in the city soon. A Ukrainian drone dropes a mine that a Russian later found. A Ukrainian UGV carrying explosives is hit.
Just when one might think, the Russians have learned a few lessons from this war, after all: another UAV storage site at the Donetsk airport was attacked, this time with SCALP missiles. Drones attacked previous drone storage buildings at that location.
Pokrovsk
There are a lot of buildings in Rodynske that are wrecked, but are still standing. Because of that, Russian infantry and drone teams gather in them before infiltrating or conducting aerial operations. If there is a drone team or a large enough collection of people, Ukraine will hit them with airstrikes, which it did three times.
Russia also expanded their foothold in Hryshyne and now control most of it.
Novopavlivka
The 20th Corps faced many difficulties and had multiple commanders since it was formed in 2025 because they were unable to establish an effective defense. Major General Victor Nikoliuk provided stability and has since been promoted to an important command. He was replaced by Colonel Svyatoslav Zaits, who began his career in 2014 training as a company commander in Crimea. When Russian forces from local garrisons demanded their surrender, 80 of them refused, and he led them with their ammo, equipment and flag to friendly lines 120 km away. His latest assignment was Chief of Staff and Deputy commander of the 8th Airborne Assault Corps.
(…to be continued…)
Thank you very much. Never read Tom before going to bed.
Your information and comments remain invaluable