Don's Weekly, 8 September 2025: Part 1

by Donald Hill (intro by Tom Cooper)

Hello everybody!

It’s both sad and frustrating to read ‘reactions’ posted in the Ukrainian social media about the Russia’s ‘record-breaking’ strike on Ukraine with 805 attack UAVs.

Sad, because the government maintains the policy of ‘publishing official figures, confirming success’. You know, 747 attack UAVs have been shot down. Or jammed.

…because that’s the mission of the state information policy…

Sad. Because it’s obvious: the people suffer and are in pain. Not only because buildings have been hit, but because people have been hit. Because some are living in areas where there is an air raid alert for 21 hours a day: the people do not even go to the shelters any more. And they are right to complain. The ‘air defence is doing everything possible’, but: that’s simply not enough. It’s not enough because there is not enough air defence. There is not enough air defence because of massive strategic mistakes, outright blunders. ‘In the past’. In the last three years, and before too.

…because that was the official state policy…

Typically, any such posts are promptly answered by ‘tails’: ‘ah, another expert?’, ‘you know better?’, ‘nest fouler!’…

Then a lots of ‘yea’ and ‘ney’.

In between, a voice or two stating things like, ‘what do you expect from a showman?’ Another posts: ‘They are absolutely incapable of anything meaningful except for collecting money. And now they’ve been given infinite billions of opportunities’. Or, ‘who elected this government’…?

And then there follows an expert. Yes, a true expert. Experienced in this business. So much so, posts a well-organised post, ‘taking apart’ the complainer’s post, bit by bit. Through explaining such things like Ukraine cannot shot down UAVs at the border because there are not enough radars and air defence systems to cover the entire territory. Therefore, these are concentrated in areas where the enemy is trying to achieve the greatest effect…

…at which point I’m reminded why do I refuse to be called an ‘expert’.

I’m fed up of ‘experts’ and their ‘expertise’. I can’t hear these words any more. So much so, I refuse to be called one.

Principally because both the politics and the mainstream media are using ‘expert’ for literally everything. Because both are lazy and paid to be incompetent. Correspondingly, whoever is ‘supposed to know something’ is an ‘expert’. Regardless if having no clue what is he/she talking about, or being paid to lie.

…and because all of these experts and their expertise are not going to mention that today Pudding’s Russia is going to continue its dirty business in Ukraine. Because all these experts said that Russia is ‘invincible’, and ‘cannot be defeated’, because ‘it’s dangerous to defeat Russia, because it could fall apart’, because experts can predict future but you cannot, because they know, 1000% sure, that Pudding is going to invade NATO in 2 months, nah, 3 years, nah 6 years; because the expertise is that ‘we do not have the money to arm Ukraine’, because ‘there are no better politicians available and in power in Kyiv, nor here’, because those in power are all ‘super smart and know better’, and thus, ‘we have to model some other outcome’ (but defeating Russia)…

…and of course, ‘because it’s complex’.

…and so, today Russians are going to continue killing and maiming. Both Ukrainians and themselves.

Just like today the Zionists are going to continue mass-murdering and displacing Palestinians, and providing 50 million excuses for doing that: in that case, and just for example, because it’s ‘logical’ and ‘just’ to continue supporting immigrants, invaders and religiously motivated fanatical psychopathic mass-murderers, looters and rapists from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, USA… anywhere… while it’s ‘supporting terror’ to speak out against their deeds, against the Zionist genocide on Palestinians, the native population of Palestine.

…and because ‘it’s complex’, too…

Actually, it’s simple: it might sound absurd at first, but Ukraine has enough means to build something like ‘anti-UAV shield’ along its borders and frontlines. It can’t do so, though, because this would expose its air defences to the full Russian firepower. It’s radars and units operating surface-to-air missiles would become easy to find, and thus hit by the Russians. In a war as long and as massive as this one, that would have only one result: the air defences would be destroyed as first, and then the country would be even more vulnerable to UAV strikes than it already is. Therefore, instead of ‘building a wall along the border and the frontline’, the Ukrainian air force and air defence force is operating in point defence style: it’s defending ‘important places’ in the rear, where the Russians can’t find and destroy it as easily. Under the given circumstances, that’s making that air defence more effective.

That would be one kind of an answer I would expect from an ‘expert’.

Just like it’s simple in regards of Zionism: keep it cool, there’s no need to hate anybody. Just stop tolerating it, stop supporting it, stop searching for and consuming excuses for a mass murder, for a genocide. Stop supplying money, arms, and information. Stop buying it.

That would be the other kind of an answer I would expect from an ‘expert’.

Amazingly enough, I never get to hear nor read any such expertise. Not from a single expert. Must be me to blame…

Over to Don…

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Sumy/Kursk

Older footage shows the Kraken clearing houses in Yunakivka but Russia is now in possession of most of the village.

With a number of Russian units moving to the Pokrovsk region, a number of Ukrainian units are also moving around. The 156th Brigade was moved to Pokrovsk, the 47th Brigade was moved closer to Yunakivka and a battalion of the 225th Assault Regiment still remains in Andriivka.

South Korea says that 2,000 of the 10,000+ North Korean soldiers were killed in Kursk.

***

Kharkiv

In Vovchansk, the 57th Brigade used a fiber optic drone to enter a warehouse to navigate the debris and find its victim.

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Kupiansk

A Russian infiltration team in civilian clothes display a Russian flag in Kupiansk and are tracked by Ukrainian drones. Another Russian team made it to the middle of Myrove (formerly Moskovka), but they didn’t hold it. Downtown Kupiansk was bombed several times. East of Pishchane, Russian forces advance 1-2 km.

***

Terny

Kriegforscher’s Marines teamed up with other units to destroy 3 tanks that were used as artillery, 5 mortars and 12 artillery pieces, all in August. 23 other artillery pieces were attacked.

A 3rd Corps tank blasts Russians in houses at the edge of Novoselivka.

Thermal ponchos reduce heat signatures but a lot of Russians still believe it makes them invisible.

***

Kostiantynivka

Dovha Balka is hit by an airstrike. The front lines didn’t move this week.

Russia is bombing Kostiantynivka now with 70 strikes in the last three weeks.

Russian airstrikes killed 9 civilians and wounded seven others in Kostiantynivka. A drone attacked a bus. Back in August, a missile hit a supermarket, killing 12 and wounding 44.

The shelling and drones have been plaguing Kostiantynivka for months. With the escalation in airstrikes, there’s a new effort to evacuate civilians. The prewar population of 67k was down to 8500 in July. This is what happens when Russia is your neighbor.

40 km from the front line, the dashcam of a Russian truck survives the impact of a Ukrainian drone. The truck was heavily damaged.

This video is one to two weeks old when Russia was first trying to enter Katerynivka.

Back in July, an Azov brigade medic team received the order to evacuate the crew of a vehicle that was destroyed by a drone. One of the crew was dead and another lost his right leg. And the medic team had to enter Shcherbynivka, which was surrounded on three sides by the invaders.

The M113 they rode in had additional protection from drones and they were hit several times. On the first hit, they lost their antenna, which cut their communications. The driver had installed cameras so he could see the road and surrounding terrain while staying buttoned up inside, but the cameras were all knocked out. The driver would use the track’s periscopes to see where it was going but every once in a while he would have to pop his head out of the hatch to orient himself. This is dangerous because the noise of the engine masks the noise of an approaching drone.

Like many armored vehicles, the M113 has periscopes to provide outside views without exposing the driver to gunfire and fragmentation explosions. It is not uncommon for them to become cracked or clouded or otherwise partially obscured over time.

It was important that they spend as little time as possible in the kill zone. They were already fortunate enough to have survived the initial drone impacts but if the vehicle was immobilized it would not only put their lives in danger, it would probably mean the severely wounded man would die.

Without communications, they didn’t know exactly where to stop. When they first stopped, the medic got out and saw the immobilized vehicle further down the road. They made one quick stop not for the wounded, but two unwounded personnel that were rotating to the rear. The medic made them part of the rescue operation. As they drove to the evacuation site, the medic said he’d take the wounded man and they would carry their dead comrade in. As dangerous as it was to drive the vehicle in the kill zone, it was even more dangerous to be walking around in it so speed was essential.

It turned out that the KIA had been mined by the Russians with a drone that landed on the body, so they left it, gathered the wounded man and sped off for home. The next day, a sapper team removed the drone and they retrieved the body. The wounded man with an amputated leg already had a tourniquet but the medic tightened it with two more twists to completely stop the bleeding. Many tourniquets that are used aren’t tight enough and that can be fatal. The medic’s action stopped additional blood loss that prevented the wounded soldier from passing out or worse.

As the only medic, he assigned tasks to the other soldiers. The M113 can be a rough ride so one soldier held the medic as he swayed back and forth to minimize his movements as he worked with scissors and conducted other tasks to treat additional wounds. He told the solder at the feet of the wounded to take off his boots and conduct a blood sweep to identify other possible wounds. Another soldier held a flashlight to augment the medic’s head lamp so he could see better in the darkened interior. When there is extensive blood loss, it’s important to keep the patient warm, so they put a thermal blanket on him.

They made the long trip to the stabilization point and transferred the patient to the medical staff. The M113, having suffered multiple hits, was unable to start again.

***

(…to be continued…)