Don's Weekly, 29 September 2025: Part 2

by Donald Hill

…sorry for delay, let me continue from the Part 1 onwards…

…erm… where did we stop…? Ah yes, Pokrovsk was the next…

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Pokrovsk

Syrsky says there are 160-190 clashes in this area and 15-20 Ukrainian assaults each day, and Russia is using twice as many artillery shells as Ukraine.

At the beginning of August, the 44th Mechanized Brigade was guarding the Rusyn Yar-Poltava sector. As the Russian punched through the sector to the west for 14 km, they were also able to advance 3500 meters against the 44th until they were stopped. With the knowledge that the Russians were transferring troops for Sumy to attempt another push in the Rusyn Yar area, the 93rd Mechanized Brigade relieved the 44th and came head-to-head with the 155th Marine Infantry Brigade, knowing of their history of war crimes. They expected vehicular assaults but have been seeing mostly small infantry groups. The number of these small infantry group assaults is increasing despite the Russian’s problems with shortfalls regarding recruitment, not to talka bout shortages of weapons and ammo supply issues.

With the Russian advances in mid-August, small groups in the Rusyn Yar sector likely made it 7 km north of Rusyn Yar. The road from Sofiivka to Pavlivka (in purple) is still a Russian objective because without it, Ukraine would be unable to hold Shakhove and Volodymyrivka. Russian bombing in the last few days (in orange) indicate where Ukraine troops are. A lot of the fields in between the villages are gray areas where both sides move through the same areas.

Ukraine was able to clear the Russians out of a settlement 1600 meters northeast of Nova Shakhove.

Russian forces still exist north and east of the settlement. The distance between Nove Shakhove and Shakhove is seven kilometers.

Because the entire area is a gray zone, two soldiers from the 425th Assault Regiment infiltrated into the middle of Novotoretske and ambushed eight Russians that didn’t expect them at that location. At the same time, Russians were attacked further north in Volodymyrivka, where drone assaults convinced some to surrender. A kilometer west of Razine, Ukrainian soldiers were attacked. 2 km east of Shakovke, Ukrainians were shelled. 500 meters to the east of that, Russians were attacked by drones.

North of Malynivka, truck and motorcycle wrecks are scattered along a 500 meter stretch of road. Novoekonomichne was cleared of Russians but Ukrainian airstrikes struck buildings in the west that were reoccupied.

The area inside the purple box is mostly a gray zone. The dots represent just some of the attacks that were published. Red dots are Russian troops that were attacked. Blue dots are Ukrainian troops that were attacked. The green dot by Novotoretske is where Ukrainian troops ambushed Russian troops.

From two weeks ago, Russians positions northwest of Maiak are cleared out.

The transcript of a two-minute dialogue from a Russian soldier talking about everyone who died, leadership that doesn’t care, and a realization that the money isn’t worth it. After 20 days without food, a Russian surrendered to a drone.

Magyar’s Birds weekly montage is choreographed to Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons”.

In Myrnohrad, a short conversation between Ukrainian citizens.

A Russian drone decides whether to attack three Ukrainian combines harvesting near Dobropillia.

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Velykomykhailivka

Russia bombarded and cleared Kalynivka. An M113 is destroyed 2 km north of Berezove. Novyhryhorivka is bombed. Russians near Olhivska are attacked. The advance to Verbove covered 8 km.

Back in May, the Russians hand over a body during a cease fire.

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Zaporizhzhia

At Kamianske, Russia waits for bad weather, sunrise or sunset to limit the effectiveness of Ukrainian drones, then 10-20 men run a kilometer and look for cover. They all carry a lot of supplies and if they are wounded or killed, they become a source of supplies for later attack waves. In about five days, when they’ve accumulated enough mass, they charge again. The Ukrainians counter with drones, mortars and artillery to reduce the groups. Then they send out small teams with FPVs in overwatch and eliminate the pockets of surviving Russians.

The depleted Russian 11th Air Assault Brigade was moved from Sumy to Kherson. This allowed the 104th Air Assault Division to move to Zaporizhzhia. One regiment from that division is now fighting at Kamianske.

Only 5 km from the front, an S300 launcher is destroyed north of Oleksiivka, the second launcher destroyed in the area.

An Su-34 was shot down on a bombing mission.

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Kherson

The 40th Coastal Defense Brigade is using autonomous targeting systems on their drones.

Kherson had a population of 283,000 in 2021. Its current population is 71,000, and since 2023 the Russians have hit 2,877 civilians. Tochnyi created an interactive map that tracks each incident of shelling and drone attack with the details of the victims and the source of information. For all the shelling, bombing and rocket attacks, most of the casualties come from drones.

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Crimea

Crimea continues to be a source of losses for Russia. Indeed: the peninsula is meanwhile nothing but trouble for them: they can’t leave it and they can’t defend it.

Three helicopters and another radar was destroyed in Crimea, and the Russians posted some of the damage. An air defense system and barracks were also hit. Two (of nine) Be-12 Amphibious planes and another Mi-8 helicopter were destroyed. Coastal radars and two transport aircraft were destroyed.

Diesel is still available, but Simferopol is out of gas. A lot of fuel trucks were sent to the city. 360 gas stations have closed in Crimea.

Sevastopol has been a sanctioned port since 2014. A Chinese ship visited the port for the first time this year, and it did it three times in June, August and September. While sailing, it transmitted false coordinates, as many shadow fleet ships do, and it is functioning as a container ship.

An FSB building in Armiansk was attacked and ambulances responded to the scene.

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Occupied Territories

80 km from the front, the gas distribution center in Shchastya was attacked. This provided fuel for the Luhansk thermal power plant, which was forced to switch to coal to continue operations. 30 km from the front, the Sievierodonetsk gas distribution center was hit. It supplies fuel to several chemical and industrial plants. 90 km from the front, another gas distribution center was hit in Aidar (formerly Novopskov).

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Unknown Location

In the age of drones, some Ukrainian special forces are patrolling and setting camouflaged mines much like both sides did during the Vietnam war.

Russia uses vehicles to move quickly and minimize their exposure to drones. Ukraine attacks the vehicles first to eliminate that mobility and then sends drones to hunt the dismounted infantry.

There have been a lot of videos of Russians shooting themselves. This Russian just seemed tired of life.

A FAB-500 bomb impacts right in front of a drone and showers it with dirt.

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Baltic Sea

A 60 minutes report that provides more details on the Eagle S destroying cables with its anchor.

‘Surprisingly’: since NATO established the Baltic Sentry operation in January, no cables have been damaged.

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(…to be continued…)