Don's Weekly, 8 April 2024: Part 1

Hello everybody!

It’s Monday morning and….well, before I go on with rolling out Donald’s summary of developments on battlefields of the War in Ukraine of the last few days, a ‘personal note’: whoever is ‘new’ around this blog is likely to be very much surprised (if not ‘shocked’) by my critique of idiots known as ‘Western’ politicians (say, ‘whoever is in charge west of the Oder River and east of Hagatna’) and their ‘politics’.

If anybody might wonder why, here’s the ‘how comes’: I’m monitoring this ‘politics’ since at least 1982. Since the times the USA and the West were ‘politely requesting’ Israel ‘to bomb Lebanon a bit less’, while supplying Sharon and his gang with all the weapons necessary to bomb as much as he could - and that, usually, because their election campaigns were ‘sponsored’ by the AIPAC and the likes. ‘In the name of peace, stability, and protection of democracy and the free World’, of course. Back then, it was ‘crucial for survival of Israel’ to run the ‘Operation Peace for Galilee’. Which was then so extremely highly effective (and from which the West has learned ah so endlessly lot) that 40 years later Lebanon is a failed country and the population of Galilee (northern Israel) is evacuated for meanwhile six months…

With other words: names of corrupt and incompetent idiots involved might be different, but nobody learned anything at all.

Indeed, nowadays we have such like Biden, Blinken, Sullivan & Co KG GesmbH AG SPA (to ‘keep it limited to Washington DC alone’, i.e. this shouldn’t mean comparables in the EU are any better), literally, ‘not supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine in attempt of convincing Putin to abandon his alliance with Iran, so Iran would threaten Israel less….’

You might not recall, or it could be you didn’t care at the time, or had no time, or whatever… but: 20 years ago, I’ve been monitoring exactly the same behaviour in Afghanistan and Iraq, and 12, then 10, and then 9 years ago in Syria. Indeed, the people of the latter were dropped like a hot rock: abandoned and left at the mercy of the IRGC- and Russian thugs - even when this eventually caused the ‘refugee crisis of 2015 (and after)’. With official explanations like ‘this is not cost-effective’, ‘we (the ‘West’) do not really stand for peace and democracy’, and/or ‘but the other guy pays me more to administer in his/her interest’. And do I have to remind you what then happened in Afghanistan, back in summer of 2021…?

Well, if our ‘elected by the people to act in the name of people’ -idiots can act this way without any consequences, then please keep in mind: then they are free to, literally, sell all of us to characters like Putin - and that at the first best opportunity.

Sorry, but: enough is enough. If we’re already doomed to go down (alone because of the climate change, in regards of which the very same idiots are finding ‘3 billion’ excuses not to act), at least I’m not going to go down ‘in silence’.

That much in this regards. Now back to for what you’ve opened this blog…

***

Western Luhansk

Most of the activity was in front of Terny. There were fewer vehicles used in those attacks and all Russian attacks were stopped with heavy losses.

The Russian attacks continued but with fewer vehicles. Russia equipped one tank with an ad-hoc set of jamming gear, which worked…until it didn’t. None of the attacks made any territorial gain. Therefore (and before soon), the Russians were back to smashing Terny and Yampolivka by glide bombs.

The Russian attack at Terny… Take note of the volume of Ukrainian indirect fire and the number of vehicles that were destroyed in previous attacks…

https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1776648252642791595

A TOS-1 is destroyed 8 km east of Terny…

https://twitter.com/azov_media/status/1775452751654187219

An immobilized Russian tank is destroyed 2300 meters east of Terny…

https://twitter.com/giK1893/status/1775451618290335944

A fair number of Russian vehicles have low-power EW systems on their vehicles, but they only work if they’re jamming the frequencies that the drones are using, so their effectiveness varies. One Russian tank had multiple EW systems and a generator tied to it. In different reports, the Ukrainians called it, “Mad Max” or “Tsar-tank”. It was powerful enough to protect itself and the other five vehicles in the group. The Ukrainians lost four drones because of it. Then a drone was able to damage the equipment and the vehicles no longer had EW protection from drones. Only one was able to escape…

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1776378554768408941

It was 1300 meters from Terny and 400 meters from Russian positions. According to this epic tale, the Ukrainians inspected it and over three days they changed the cylinders and 70 kg batteries and untangled the barbed wire wound in the track and wheels. Some Russians (the amount wasn’t stated) tried to reach the tank on motorcycles but were killed…

https://twitter.com/moklasen/status/1776944550503748020

A different telling of the tale says mostly the same things but with a few different details, such as Desertcross 1000-3’s (golf carts) were used instead of motorcycles…

https://twitter.com/astraiaintel/status/1776938783197282659

Here is the video of the Ukrainians driving the tank into Terny. The EW gear was later inspected…

https://twitter.com/moklasen/status/1776648560634638346

After a Russian tank is immobilized on a mine it looked like someone kicked open a termite mound…

https://twitter.com/moklasen/status/1776683193191543003

A BMP is immobilized by a mine. Over 20 Russians dismount and are hit by four HE and three DPICM rounds…

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1776705193649852789

Another Russian attack that was stopped…

https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1776530960911101964

4km behind Russian lines near Tabaivaka, 1 Russian tank is destroyed and another is either damaged or destroyed…

https://twitter.com/alexskichambe/status/1775968424566591527

***

Bakhmut

Russia used and lost a lot of vehicles that aren’t on the map because there were so many videos created the geolocators (Andrew Perpetua and his team) haven’t processed them all.

Russian airstrikes, thermobaric and HE artillery bombardments and some drones took their toll on the Ukrainian defenders and their defensive positions. Russia attacked twice with over 30 vehicles, trying to overwhelm Ukrainian artillery and drones. The first attack was beaten off under heavy Ukrainian shelling. The Russians were able to discharge their troops into the forest in front of the canal zone of Chasiv Yar. They were then hit with Ukrainian artillery. I haven’t seen any reports on whether they were expelled from the forest or not.

Two Russian Su-25s made a rare flyover on the battlefield only to drop their payload on Russian positions 1500 meters from the front line. Russia was able to occupy the southern edge of Ivanivske.

The Russian Su-25s…

https://twitter.com/Damien94475559/status/1777055714730557526

The Russians use eight vehicles in an assault that reached the eastern edge of the canal district of Chasiv Yar before being repelled…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1775960321510764853

On April 4, Russia attacked the canal district with 25 vehicles. Ukraine reports that half were destroyed and the other half withdrew, and that Ukraine was clearing out the infantry they deposited…

https://twitter.com/MKot316/status/1775848407212470408

One kilometer west of Bohdanivka, Ukraine lost 2 tanks, a BMP and a grenade launcher to drones…

https://twitter.com/franfran2424/status/1776008356618015034

South of Bakhmut, the 92nd destroyed a lot vehicles in this post…

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1776682904451490301

Somewhere near Kurdiumivka, the blast waves of a thermobaric explosive escapes by moving the walls of a house…

https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/177578876767400364

***

Avdiivka

Russia bombarded Ukrainian positions behind Berdychi with TOS-1 attacks. They also continued making attacks towards the village and continued to lose men and equipment. Ukraine lost a Bradley that was immobilized and unable to be recovered.

Russia is still attacking out of Orlivka across the small Durna river. There are conflicting reports about whether they are holding any territory on that side of the river and no visual evidence to confirm any reports.

Russia continued making attacks towards Umanske with losses and without making any progress. They were able to advance a kilometer along the right bank of Pervomaiske. This will possibly aid Russian advancement to some degree in the fields to the north.

An M1 tank was destroyed in the northeast corner of Berdychi a month ago. Since then, it’s been joined by a few Russian armored vehicles. In what used to be a tree line, Russian infantry try to find cover from Ukrainian artillery…

https://twitter.com/giK1893/status/1775596169424478252

Another small assault on Berdychi was stopped and the survivors were pursued by drones…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1775946612176486786

In all the other videos I’ve seen, when a drone hits a Russian vehicle with troops on it, the troops get off immediately. That didn’t happen when a drone hit a BMP at Berdychi. When the BMP stopped, some rolled off wounded. Others jumped off unhurt but were immediately engaged by machine gun fire. All were killed…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1776905319467167925

There were lot of drones in the air near Tonenke in the large Russian attack. A tank driving back to the village was already smoking from one drone when it is set on fire by another. Another drone observes as a drone misses the tank by 30 meters. The now-abandoned tank is finished off by a grenade by a bomber drone…

https://twitter.com/giK1893/status/1775658321883615628

Damaged and destroyed armored vehicles and columns of smoke are scattered across the landscape west of Tonenke after the attack…

https://twitter.com/moklasen/status/1776293195300696156

Some more video of the large attack…

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1775471372178755687

In the large Tonenke attack, three Russian tanks had EW gear with 8 antennas, similar to the ‘Mad Max’ tank at Terny but more organized. They were destroyed by Javelins or Stugnas. Once they were destroyed, the rest of the vehicles had no protection from drones and many were immobilized and later killed by them.

***

Marinka

The front lines didn’t move this week but Russia did lose 13 armored vehicles north of Novomykhailivka. Russia regularly hit deep behind Ukrainian lines with glide bombs.

A Russian tank 1300 meters south of Krasnohorivka doesn’t survive a drone…

https://twitter.com/giK1893/status/1775824573545554100

Russian attempts to secure what’s left of Novomykhailivka continues to come at a cost. Again, note the amount of Ukrainian artillery…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1775943800713597111

It’s been a while since we saw a stockpile of mines blow up…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1776282339686895679

***

Zaporizhzhia

The front lines didn’t change here, either. This map shows how much the lines have changed in the last six months. Ukraine made some very small gains on the flanks. Russia has made moderate gains along the front.

20 km northeast of Robotyne, Russian infantry are attacked by drones…

https://twitter.com/giK1893/status/1775975667621876008

35 km southeast of Nikopol, a Russian air defense system is observed while moving. A precision artillery shell destroys it…

https://twitter.com/thisisnotdirk/status/1775194832149110866

A French-made Hammer from a Russian point of view…

https://twitter.com/Asim96M/status/1775077600794132962

A Russian drone observes a bomb impact on Orikhiv, 13 km north of Robotyne…

https://twitter.com/3_bm15/status/1776026456071573514

Three S-300s and four Shaheds hit Kharkiv. 31 other missiles and drones were shot down…

https://twitter.com/ukraine_map/status/1776497382244381157

***

Kherson

A Russian air defense system is bombed by a drone…

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1776355710835601781

A Russian repair base only 11 km from the right bank was hit by a GMLRS rocket…

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1776568898826944755

A Russian 203mm gun was destroyed…

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1777074897216274474

Russian military equipment was hit…

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1777042350453260414

GRAPHIC: The Russians released a video of them shooting prisoners at Krynky at close range…

https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1776936182057705896

(…to be continued…)