Don's Weekly, 31 December 2024: Part 1

by Donald Hill (intro by Tom Cooper)

Hello everybody!

The ‘life’ came in between, and thus this issue of Don’s Weekly is delayed by a day.

Sorry for that: hope, nobody has any kind of….’withdrawal symptoms’.

The war in Ukraine is going on, of course - and that regardless what is happening anywhere else. Pudding has no other options but to continue threaening with yet more of his intermediate-range ballistic missiles (as if the first one achieved anything….); no options but to keep on attriting the Ukrainian air defences by streaming additional bunches of attack UAVs all over the country, every night; no other options but to continue rocketing and shelling any areas within reach of his missile forces; and officers of his ground forces have no other options - nor skills for anything else left - but to assemble one assault wave, send them out to get smashed, then send another one, and another one, and another one, and another one….

…as long as there are enough troops, armoured fighting vehicles, civilian cars, golfcarts, morotcycles, or bicycles left to send into yet another assault…

On its own, this would be at least ‘containable’, if not ‘useful’ - for Ukraine: tragic is only that Syrsky & Buddies simply have no ideas how, nor are ready to listen to advice… at most, Zelensky’s Minister of Defence, Rustem Umerov, is now into attempting to soft the ever more vocal critique of his, Glavcom’s and GenStab-U’s incompetence by the specialised Ukrainian military-monitoring media…

But hey, that’s really ‘nothing special’. Meanwhile, even I am getting used to Zelensky’s administration being more concerned about improving its standing in the social media than improving its own performance in governance. Or the performance by Syrsky & Buddies. For example through combating corruption and ineptitude, dismissing people who have proven they can’t, appointing those who can, etc., etc., etc…

….really, hand on heart: who said Ukrainian generals ‘must’ perform better than their Russian counterparts…? Ask Ukrainians living abroad: they’re the first to tell you that NATO is full of incompetents. And Russia - even more so. Thus, no need for those of the ZSU to be any better…

Better we all return to ‘Waiting for Godot’ - and that 21 January…

In that sense: thank you for sticking with us through this awful 2024, thank you for supporting our collection efforts, special thanks for tolerating - even enjoying - all shiploads of sarcasm spilled all over this place, and:

Happy New Year, and a peaceful, healthy, and prosperous 2025!

(…or, as we here in Austria tend to say: Guten Rutsch!)

***

Kursk

Lately, the Russians are using ever fewer vehicles but: their infantry continues looking for holes in the Ukrainian defenses. Russian casualties remain high, but their infantry fills in any cracks with their numbers and Ukraine’s perimeter continues to be slowly squeezed.

West of Novoivanovka, a battalion from the 116th Brigade use their drones to stop another assault. Russians take cover under a disabled vehicle. Ukrainian drone operators try to drop bombs as close to the vehicles as possible without actually hitting the vehicle. To the east, Ukraine another Russian attack towards Malaya Loknya cost them 8 armored vehicles but for now they’ve secured the woods to the east of Novoivanovka and are moving towards Leonidovo. A Ukrainian tank defending Malaya Loknya was destroyed after four drone attacks.

The 47th Brigade uses a variety of weapons to stop a Russian assault.

Drone units try to keep at least one drone up at all times. A new drone arrives before the drone low on power leaves. In this way they can constantly seek new targets, whether they are attacking or defending. In this case, they follow a Russian soldier wounded in an attack back to a defensive position. Once revealed, it is attacked.

A Ukrainian vehicle is attacked by a drone in Russkoe Porechnoe. The crew dismounted and ran into an adjacent building that was attacked by more drones.

A Ukrainian SUV is lost in Lebedevka. 700 meters away, Ukraine lost a self-propelled howitzer to drone attacks.

The headquarters of the 810th Marines has reportedly been struck in Lgov. It is reported that the brigade will be sent to Plokhovo for rest.

Many North Koreans still don’t understand the threat of drones.

The North Korean wounded are being treated in a hospital probably located in Kursk. There was a report of Russian nurses treating them with contempt. This is a video from a Russian soldier.

Training is an issue in the North Korean army. One defector served in the special forces and learned to throw knives but only fired three bullets in over ten years of service. Much of the North Korean army spend their time farming, building or chopping wood. The soldiers sent belong to the Storm Corps, who can demonstrate a certain level of combat capability. They tend to be a little taller and athletic, and their mission was to infiltrate enemy lines and create chaos in the rear. One defector said that many would be eager to fight and he would have felt the same way. What they lack in expertise is somewhat compensated by their loyalty, so they are less likely to defect and surrendering is considered shameful. Two North Koreans decided to defect after reading propaganda sent by South Korea, but they say that is less likely to work so far from home. Plus, it takes a long time to build the desire and courage to defect.

***

Kharkiv

Ukraine used aerial and ground drones to conduct surveillance, mine clearing and remotely-controlled machine gun operations in the Lyptsi area.

A remotely operated machine gun drone used in the Lyptsi area.

A ground-level tour of northern Vovchansk. There are some areas with even fewer structures standing. On the eastern edge of the wasteland, a Russian throws an AT mine into a Ukrainian position. On the western edge, there’s a series of drone attacks on Russian infantry. 1500 meters south of the aggregate plant, a Ukrainian position is detected and attacked with a drone.

A Ukrainian drone is rammed. 5 km to the north of the city, a Russian loaf is destroyed. To the west of the city, and 2 km into Russia, the 42nd Brigade attacks Russian vehicles.

The Russians assaulted the aggregate plant… again.

***

Kupiansk

There were no reports on Dvorichna but another bridge over the Oskil river was destroyed by a Russian air strike near Kupiansk Vuzlovyi.

Russians attacking in the southern end of Zahryzove are hit hard. Later, Russian forces were hit in central Kruhliakivka.

After being surrounded on three sides for two weeks, Lozova fell to Russia. There are about 15 homes in the village so that’s worthy of a flag.

One of the (regimental-sized) battalions of the 3rd Assault Brigade conducted a small combined-arms clearing operation at Novoiehorivka and left under artillery fire with prisoners.

***

Siversk

A Ukrainian position in Bilohorivka is hit by artillery. A Russian attack in front of the giant slagheap was stopped with vehicles destroyed. The 119th Brigade stopped several attacks north of Verkhnokamianske. And the 10th Mountain stopped attacks headed towards Vyimka. Russia was unable to gain any territory.

About 30 rockets from a BM-21 land in an area 1000 meters by 500 meters inside Siversk.

***

(…to be continued…)