Don's Weekly, 22 January 2024: Part 1

Good morning everybody!
Work, plus affairs like US media ‘quoting’ my articles without asking for permission and without sufficient attribution (yes, once again) - and then not reacting to e-mails until one addresses them in the public - but also ‘information’ that (quote) ‘I’m more dangerous than Hamas’ - indeed: ‘more dangerous than an ‘army of muslim (sic) terrorists’ - and, of course, that I’m an ‘antisemite’ (sic), have kept me away from posting more, the last few days.

Cannot but wonder how eloquently educated, versed in their job and hobbies, and (though especially) ‘informed’ are the people in question: whether it’s the US media, that can’t even come to the idea to run a serious interview, with pre-publication checks; or wannabes and smartasses that are certainly discussing the flight route and landing approach with every airline pilot before embarking… Man, I’ve learned to love all the ‘journalists’, but especially this month’s Ukrainian super-turbo-social-media-experts for Middle East, Arabs, Israelis, Arab-Israeli conflict … and something called ‘warfare’…

At least I have this opportunity to thank you all for your patience, and observe: yes, it’s already another Monday and thus the time for this week’s round of Don’s Weekly.

…and Don has got his hands full with collecting all the news, because a lot is going on - not only in Ukraine - and thus there is a lot to monitor, analyse and publish. Of course, that’s nowhere near as important as harassing people in the social media, about which one knows as little as about the topic of one’s interest: calling them names early in the morning - whenever in need of stronger argumentation - is always very helpful…

Western Luhansk

Russia took a 2 x 2 km patch of ground that included the village of Krokhmaine, halfway between Kupiansk and Svatove. Heavy fighting at Synkivka, Ivanivka (the one 9 km north of Krokhmaine) and Kreminna didn’t result in any change of territory. That is the first village Russia has taken in this sector in months.

A Russian column of tanks with infantry on top are moving to assault a Ukrainian position but they are spotted by a drone. At 0:34 you hear a DPICM round explode at a certain height, releasing all 88 submunitions. The first flash of light to the left of the trail is a submunition hitting a tree at 0:36. A split second later, the rest begin detonating on the ground. Most of the bomblets are centered on the vehicles 100 meters in front of the camera but you can see sparks on the tank the camera operator is riding. Someone on the vehicle receives a leg wound of unknown severity. The camera operator receives a small cut on his nose that he doesn’t realize right away. At 1:10, 1:24, 1:34, 2:10, 3:32, 5:07 and 7:30, more DPICM impacts are heard, some closer than others. The tanks are sent away and the assault never reaches the Ukrainian positions…

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1745384634790085098

West of Kreminna, Russian IFVs assault the defensive positions of the 25th Brigade at close range…

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1747663584413278322

A Russian TOS-2 in action near Kreminna…

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1714303367873253479

East of Kupiansk, a series of drone attacks on Russian vehicles…

https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1746459549396041884

Somewhere in a forest, M1 tanks are kept in reserve. A brief look at the roomy interior…

https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1746436034613624916

Bakhmut

17 km northeast of Bakhmut, Russia advanced one kilometer over a four kilometer width and took the village of Vesele. Russian attacks towards Ivanivske, two kilometers west of Bakhmut, were repelled.

The turret of a Russian T72 is removed by the 92nd Brigade…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1747315082416078941

A little further south the 93rd damaged and destroyed a few Russian vehicles…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1747316284042158394

With fragmentation grenades someone could be a meter away and not be wounded, or they could be ten meters away and killed. This drone from the 5th Assault Brigade seems to be high enough that the Russians don’t react to it. This was a failed assault on Ivanivske directly west of Bakhmut. The poster had the footage transmitted by the drone a couple days earlier but didn’t publish the video until he received the higher quality video from the drones memory card…

https://twitter.com/666_mancer/status/1748271537159913710

Avdiivka

Warm weather turned maybe six inches of snow into slush. Dry feet are important for the infantry. Wet and cold can lead to trench foot or frostbite. The assaults on Stepove continued without any success for Russia. They also continued to send assaults towards the coke plant but the thick elevated buildings provide a platform for machine guns and snipers that thin out the assault groups before they reach the Ukrainian positions. With such a narrow portion of the plant exposed to the assaults they’re easily stopped.

Russia has been trying to advance east of Avdiivka for months now but they’ve only gained 500 meters in two small clusters of houses. Further east, there have been many assaults from the direction of Vesele but they haven’t haven’t had any success. The road leading into Vesele is constantly interdicted by artillery and drones. One seven vehicle column was recorded this week as it was destroyed on that road. The two kilometers of water to the west of Kamianka helps Ukraine because it limits the direction of assaults and if any treelines are captured it makes supplying those positions more difficult.

The 110th brigade engages a column of 7 Russian vehicles. This is a big group by recent standards. Russia had been using smaller groups because of the effects of DPICM…

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1747173952667955390

A Ka-52 launched a missile on this house…https://t.me/ttambyl/4132

In 1314, King Edward II banned football in England because it interfered with archery, which was necessary to have skilled archers in times of war. The second Bradley crew that engaged the T-90 in Stepove is interviewed. The gunner/commander said he knew where to fire from playing video games and he tried to blind the tank so it wouldn’t be able to leave.

The Bradley has 300 rounds of 25mm ammo in its ready boxes and can carry 600-1200 more rounds for reloads. The rounds are either armor piercing or high explosive. The gunner said that he had a problem with the feed of the armor piercing rounds so he just used the HE rounds. The Bradleys are also capable of firing TOW missiles which can kill tanks outright, but they didn’t seem to have any on board. Back in October, an infantry unit said that they were so short on Javelin rounds that they carried a damaged missile around with hopes of having it repaired. I don’t know the supply status of TOW missiles but it seems likely that there are few of them, as well.

In a different part of the video, a mine hit a different Bradley and damaged a wheel. Maintenance personnel ‘break track’, separating the tread, to pull off the damaged wheel and put on the new one before tread back together again. Depending on the damage, it can be done in as little as an hour. They did not appear to be concerned about Russian drones while stationary on the road so that could be an indication that Ukrainian jammers are still able to protect this sector. While not all incidents can be captured, Andrew Perpetua did show only seven drone attacks all week and almost all of them were three kilometers north of Stepove (where one Bradley was damaged)…

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1748480083990372669

A Russian-occupied house that was full of antenna was hit by an M31 rocket…

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1746189318257803409

A view from the Ukrainian drone that survived an attack from a Russian drone…

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1747386966532829688

Ukraine’s 109th Brigade is probably on the southern flank of Avdiivka. They’re supported by a Bradley which fires at Russians taking cover in the ruins of a house. The Bradley then dismantles the empty BMP at point blank range…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1747344011596058895

A Ukrainian on the back of a vehicle fires at a drone that is pursuing them…

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1747249813215723997

A Bradley works over Russian positions just outside Stepove…

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1747252023567798301

An anti-tank mine is dropped from a Ukrainian drone…

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1747251086824464891

Last week a T-90 was pummeled and blinded by two Bradleys in Stepove. After it ran into a tree it was hit by a done and the crew runs for cover…

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1746368794476290110

The dates of the footage varies, but it shows Ukrainian Omega unit snipers working from the coke plant, claiming a 90% hit rate of up to 1300 meters…

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1748459620056564029

(…to be continued…)