Don's Weekly, 26 August 2024: Part 4
by Donald Hill
(…continued from Part 3…)
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Russia
The System Putin continues to take measures to maintain recruitment levels by changing the laws, paying higher bonuses and searching for deserters across international borders. Earlier this year Russia raised its conscription age limit from 27 to 30. The Prigozhin rebellion and then the invasion of Kursk unsettled a lot of the Russian population, particularly outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg areas where Russia is drafting most of contract soldiers. This has been by design since those two cities have the most domestic political influence. Signing bonuses have increased to two million rubles in Moscow, which has provided 10% of the soldiers signed in the last year. Signing bonuses increased four times since the beginning of the year as recruiting becomes more difficult. The bonuses represent anywhere from “several times” the local average monthly salary to 68 times the monthly salary in Karachay-Cherkessia. Based on a study of federal spending and calculated bonus payments for the claimed recruitment, Russia recruited 214,000 less people than they have stated since the fall of 2022.
Ukraine’s strategic bombing campaign continues to improve in terms of numbers of drones and missiles and the improved capabilities of these weapons. Continuous strikes on Russian air defenses also played a key part in Ukraine’s success this week, as Tom explained here.
The latest effort in this regards began when reportedly hit an S-300 battery in Novoshakhtinsk, Rostov Oblast.
The 78 or 79 fuel tanks there are part of the Russian federal fuel reserve and holding gas/fuel, oil, kerosene. The site was attacked two times the last week. Over time, the fires spread to adjacent tanks. This is the fire after three days of burning. More than 150 fire engines and over 500 firefighters are on the scene and 50 firefighters have been injured by heat and smoke. After burning for six days, yet more drones attacked the tank farm. This video was taken shortly after the kerosene tanks erupted. Houses in the nearby town caught fire.
In the Volgograd region, 300 km from Ukraine, fire lit up the night and the next day the smoke was thick over the Marinivka air base and there were secondary explosions. Here are the initial satellite images of damage to the base.
There were no initial reports about whether the fourteen Su-24s and fifteen Su-34s recently based there were damaged or not. The light aircraft shelters provided no protection against direct hits and little protection from nearby explosions and fragmentation but did seem to protect aircraft that were further away. In addition to the maintenance facilities, POL dump and ammo dump, Tom reports that 2 Su-34s and an Su-24 were destroyed and the same amount were damaged, and he observed that this is the most successful strike on a Russian airbase to date.
Oktyabrskoye Airfield in Volgograd Oblast was attacked by drones and 12 explosions were reported.
In late July, Olenya air base was attacked (1800 km away from Ukraine) and a Tu-22 bomber was hit. It was attacked again last week. Video of a drone being destroyed was posted but there are no other details of the attack.
An ammo dump belonging to the VSRF Group Zapad was hit in Ostrogozhsk, 125km from Ukraine. It reportedly contains 5,000 tons of surface-to-air missiles and other ammunition. Early the next morning, it was still burning with secondary explosions.
Bataysk airbase was hit by drones.
Stefan Korshak details the recent attacks on Russian airfields.
The port of Kavkaz on the Russian side of the Kerch strait was attacked for a third time this month. The Conro Trader, a RoRo ferry that was previously damaged, was loaded with 30 rail cars filled with fuel. It was hit by one R-360 Neptune and set afire: due to poor fire-fighting equipment and training, it burned out and sunk at a pier: its wreckage is now blocking one of the two rail ramps. Another such ferry, the Slavyanin was severely damaged on July 23rd and there are no reports on when it might be repaired. The Avangard and Conro Trader were damaged on May 30th and the Conro Trader was subsequently repaired. There are no reports on when the damage to the Avangard might be repaired.
Among other things, the Telegram social media service is reported to be used by the Russian military and FSB for planning and operations. The owner of Telegram was arrested in France for his failure to moderate activities on Telegram, his refusal to cooperate with law enforcement, and his lax approach to payment systems, as they pertain to facilitation of paedophilia, drug trafficking, and fraud on his platform.
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(…to be continued…)
Thanks Don, glad to see the UAF is having some good success with their drones and in house missiles
Thanks for the update. Hope the drone success continues.