Don's Weekly, 28 December 2023: Part 3
(…continued from Part 2…)
Marinka
Russia started making a push into Marinka in August, 2022, but it wasn’t until December before they secured half the town, which was reduced to rubble. Over the next nine months, Russia was able to secure 90% of the town. At that time they started their push towards Novomykhailivka, 9 km to the south. They’ve been able to advance 1.5 km in a little more than two months with the usual heavy casualties.
The 155th Naval Infantry Brigade was reconstituted after the Russians destroyed them at Vuhledar. Now they’re attacking Novomykhailivka. This is a video of them riding on a tank until a mine immobilizes it. They dismount and spread out in the open firing at a target too far away for them to be effective…
https://twitter.com/UKikaski/status/1737819137747861834
A Russian 152mm gun is destroyed. A lot of Russian vehicles have been spotted with jamming devices but since this vehicle was destroyed with a single shot, it suggests that a precision munition was used and was uneffected by GPS jamming…
https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1737736709255639043
Russian infantry and immobilized vehicles are bombed by drones east of Novomykhailivka…
https://twitter.com/EjShahid/status/1737106533450969559
A Russian drone knocks out a Ukrainian BMP on the southern flank of Avdiivka…
https://twitter.com/EjShahid/status/1737559328607846556
One soldier in Marinka brings up valid complaints, in particular that prisoners go home with pardons after their contract is up but mobilized soldiers have been on the front for a 18 months with no end in sight…
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1738865889909326027
Robotyne
Nine weeks after the beginning of the offensive, Ukraine secured Robotyne, a distance of 7 km. Early October was the high water mark of the offensive. Ukrainian troops were seen in Verbove and Novoprokopivka and on the ridge in between the two villages, but they were unable to maintain those gains. Throughout November until the beginning of December, Ukraine made modest attempts to widen their penetration but did not push further south. Since December, Ukraine has remained in a defensive posture and Russia is trying to squeeze the pocket from the sides but has only been able to gain one field on either side.
Here is one attempt to advance towards Verbove from the west…
https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/173680273546142956
From the drone’s camera, it drops an explosive and wounds two Russians hiding behind a knocked-out APC. They are both wounded and then one commits suicide…
https://twitter.com/Danspiun/status/1736749572171407843
A Russian squad in the open survives a drone attack…
https://twitter.com/Danspiun/status/1735020632545382536
A Russian BMP is destroyed in the same area…
https://twitter.com/Danspiun/status/1735355508494574056
Russians in Verbove are bombed by a drone…
https://twitter.com/EjShahid/status/1738166932187050100
A report that Russians were using Ukrainian POWs as shields in an attack. The exact location was withheld at the request of the Ukrainian government.
Kherson
The local Russian commander was tasked with eliminating the Krynky bridgehead and for the last two weeks there have been twenty times the number of attacks compared to previous weeks. The assaults were accompanied by a stronger Russian electronic warfare presence in the sector resulting in more Russian drone attacks and issues with jammed Ukrainian drones, although there is still more Ukrainian drone activity than Russian. Accompanying these assaults, and sometimes carrying the Russian infantry, are armored vehicles.
Ukraine captured Krynky by October 23rd. In the next month the Russians lost about 100 armored vehicles in their counterattacks, mostly to drones, and then withdrew their vehicles for two weeks. In the last two weeks they started assaulting with their armor again and have lost about 50 vehicles, ten of which were lost in one day, and, as before, most of the losses were caused by drones. This is the same rate of loss as earlier despite a stronger Russian EW presence. These persistent attacks of 10-30 troops and 1-4 vehicles appear to have pushed Ukrainians back from the lightly held sections of Krynky that were not adjacent to the forest. The forest and strip of rubble next to it is still firmly in Ukrainian hands.
One of the biggest problems for Ukraine in the Kherson region is the Russian glide bombs. They aren’t very accurate but a near miss can be deadly, and there have been a lot of them. Each airstrike on the map represents multiple bombs. There have been as many as 100 bombs dropped in one day. The day after the reports that up to three Russian jets were shot down in the Kherson region there were no airstrikes in that sector the next day. There is no telling how long the pause will last before Russia resumes their attacks but any break will benefit the Ukrainians. Russia is working on extending the range of their glide bombs so their aircraft can launch them out of range of enemy air defenses.
A FAB1500 glide bomb with a 675 kg warhead detonated on the right side of the Dnieper. 46.764089, 33.079808…
There have been statements by the Ukrainian government and Russian bloggers that three SU-34s, with two crewmen each, were shot down by a Patriot battery as they were bombing the Kherson sector. Other reports say only one or two SU-34s were shot down…
https://twitter.com/UKikaski/status/1738231131500155194
One of the recovered pilots is evacuated by helicopter. Russia stated that all the pilots, living and dead, were recovered, which hints that more than two pilots might be involved. Other reports say only two out of six Russian crew were recovered alive…
https://twitter.com/UKikaski/status/1738177114682069365
Two reports say that Russian glide bombs were not dropped in the Kherson sector a day after Russian planers were shot down…
https://twitter.com/SimonJohnBowden/status/1738677414945816943
While JDAM-ER bombs hit targets 30 kilometers from the Dnieper, two Russian jets fly by. 46.480268,33.089344…
https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1738179667163480287
Another TOS-1A is destroyed near Krynky…
https://twitter.com/lost_warinua/status/1737177835633058255
Magyar says that the Russians increased their EW capabilities around Krynky, making it harder for his drones to work. On top of that, 50 of his drones are stuck at the border because of the Polish blockade and despite war supplies supposedly being allowed to pass through. He also says that Russian drones outnumber Ukrainian drones by 7:1…https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBtW0J_W8AAdQXm?format=jpg&name=large
The Shark drone working with HIMARS/MLRS managed hit a variety of targets west of the Oleshky Sands…
https://twitter.com/ukrspecsystems/status/1738106828792176782
A Russian tank in Krynky is destroyed…
https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1737396873659634139
A Russian tank on the way to Krynky doesn’t make it…
https://twitter.com/UKikaski/status/1736851164908450256
A Russian truck survives a drone attack…
https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1738313865283223590
A house used by six Russians is attacked…
https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1738928952314384545
Buildings were targeted 60 km away from the Dnieper. The targets were not identified…
https://twitter.com/EjShahid/status/1738531493440315545
Crimea
A deep-space communications complex was attacked and an FSB officer was reported wounded…
https://twitter.com/UKikaski/status/1737449409707680056
Status of what’s left of the Russian fleet in Sevastopal…
https://twitter.com/MT_Anderson/status/1738397253541191843
(…to be continued…)
„The 155th Naval Infantry Brigade was reconstituted after the Russians destroyed them at Vuhledar.“
Good morning,
do I remember correctly, that it was the Ukrainians, who destroyed the 155th?