Don's Weekly, 7 October 2024: Part 1

by Donald Hill (with intro by Tom Cooper)

Hello everybody!

The first ‘weekly’ in this month and… well, we’ve still got nothing ‘better’ to tell you but in my update from three days ago. Except that by now it’s sure: Biden, frustrated by fierce Ukrainian resistance - foremost against Pudding and his hordes, but also against his and his Trio Fantasticus’ modelling of the outcome of this war - has, de-facto, ‘thrown the towel’: Ukraine needs not expecting any additional aid from the USA any more as long as Biden is still in White House. Which is until 20-21 January 2025.

Which, to bring it to the point, means that now Ukraine must see how is it going to survive at least the next four months, almost entirely on its own - and if it’s not going to be longer, if Trump wins instead of Harris. In which case Ukraine needs not expecting anything at all from the USA for the next 4.5 years.

That much about ‘Cradle of Democracy’ and its ‘defence of freedom, prosperity, and human rights’.

With other words: for second year in succession, Ukraine is abandoned by the USA right on time for the onset of the winter campaign.

And EU…? Firstly, ‘EU’ exists foremost on the paper: in practice, it’s an economic- - but, by no means political - union of 27 different states, each of which is pursuing entirely different interests. Thanks for asking. And one of primary interests of the majority of EU’s members is not to get too much involved ‘in that fracas in Ukraine’. It’s none of our business, you know: we didn’t cause it (at most, ‘it was those war-mongers from NATO’), it’s not really our specialty, and we’ve got more important things to do. Where the majority of us, ‘citizens of the EU’, actually have no clear idea what are these, ‘more important things to do’ - but, never mind: we can always complain about illegal immigrants, hundreds of other things, watch cat videos in the social media, or the Champions League on the TV. Because we’ve got it so bad, here in ‘Garden Europe’, can’t say. Just don’t do anything to wake us up from that lethargy, and don’t bother us with wars, please: we’re outspokenly peaceful people. Except it’s about Israel, of course: then our politicians and the media can’t stop repeating how important it is to support Israel against those hordes blood-thirsty terrorists from the Middle East.

….and wondering how comes the latter are behaving like from the Medieval Ages, where Israel is doing its best to bomb them back to the Stone Ages…

With other words: for second year in succession, Ukraine is abandoned by the EU right on time for the onset of the winter campaign.

…‘sic transit gloria mundi’…

Well, as much as I’m endlessly proud of and deeply in love with our oligarchy, politicians, and the media, and could go on praising them for several years longer, sorry: must stop this introduction here, and hand you over to Don.

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Kursk….general…

Russian air strikes on Ukrainian positions remain heavy. Sure, this is the Russian-, not the Ukrainian territory, whether they hit ZSU units or not. But, the problem is that there is simply no solution in sight, that the ZSU is under heavy pressure and suffering losses, and that nobody is working on finding a solution for the Russian glide bombs.

When it comes to military sciences, this must be the most conveniently ignored issue in this war.

On the ground, priority is now on repelling relentless Russian counterattacks into the flanks of the Ukrainian-controlled ‘bulge’. As can be seen from attached maps, it’s obvious that the Russians are trying to force Ukrainians to withdraw through a pincer attack.

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Kursk- Western Sector

The state of the Russian pontoon bridges in the Glushkovo area is losing in importance - because the Russians have secured the road from Korenevo to Glushkovo. That said, there are still there, and Ukrainians are still attacking them. Therefore, the Russians have submerged seven out of eight that should be in service: that’s making it slightly harder to destroy them.

In the air, the Ukrianian UAVs - i.e. their pilots - are busy hunting Russian UAVs.

Perpetua geolocated the 17 Russian reconnaissance drones that were intercepted along the border.

East from there, Russia is still attacking hard and slowly pushing Ukraine back with infantry attacks and artillery. Precise flow of the ‘frontline’ (if there is really one) is not entirely clear, but during the last week, this should have moved from (approximately) the line Obukhovka-Byakhovo-Vnezapnoe-Troitskoe, to (approximately) the line Liubimovka-Darino, something like this:

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Kursk- Northern Sector

Not a lot of observed territorial changes but there was still a lot of skirmishing on the front line. Ukraine was pushing north to Safonovka at the same time a Russia vehicle appeared east of Kremyanoe, where it was destroyed by the 41st Brigade.

Many of Russian reconnaissance drones were intercepted in this sector, as well.

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Kursk- Eastern Sector

There was little change in the front lines except that Russia is now attacking Plekhovo with the assistance of heavy artillery fire.

***

(…to be continued…)