Ukraine War, 27 April 2024 (UPDATED)

Hello everybody!

Just realised that, while collecting materials for this update, I’ve been ‘facepalming’ myself for over two hours. Yes: have found myself ‘almost paralysed’ for more than two hours just from reading all sorts of moronic nonsense in the mainstream- and the social media.

Shall I start with that US expert criticising the way the ZSU was deploying M1 Abrams tanks?

It’s not like I’m always nonsense-free, far from that. But, that brilliant mind wasted unknown amounts of electrons to explain something like that the US-Americans have, ‘…taught them [Ukrainians] everything about deploying M1s correctly, in a combined arms battle…’ and then these miserable, incompetent Ukrainians didn’t follow instruction and advice and didn’t deploy them with support of air power, artillery…

WTF?!?

Did you supply that air power and artillery to Ukraine, so it can fight that combined arms battle?

Nope. You’ve prohibited delivery of Western weapons to the Azov (the first ZSU unit to apply NATO-standards to its training), then sent 31 nifty tanks (approx. the number of Russian tanks the ZSU is destroying in 2-3 days), and 13 M142 HIMARS launchers to Ukraine – and then have shipped all the ammo for them to Israel so this can genocide Palestinians. So much so, now you can’t comprehend why are students on dozens of US universities protesting against that politics.

….cannot but recommend Mr. Delusional Expert to…. go back to his corner. Perhaps he could write a brilliant piece of demand for Scholz to ‘release’ Taurus KEPD missiles because he’s jealous that Germany is the biggest and most effective single supporter of Ukraine… At last that would keep the humanity safe from the threat emitted by his lonesome brain cell….for a month or so…

Please everybody (especially Ukrainians), have understanding for sensible stomachs of US military experts. They do not like to see scenes like from the video from which this screen-grab was taken, showing results of attacks by some 5-6 Lancets on a single M1, somewhere ‘west of Avdiivka’, about five days ago… the M1 eventually blew up (was something like the sixth Abrams lost in Ukraine by now).

…or like this photo, showing a M1150 ARV (armoured engineering vehicle based on M1 chassis), captured by the 74^th Motor-Rifle Brigade in the Berdychi area… Scences of destruction of the 4799th Russian tank are much more fun…

Oh, and while I’m at ‘US super weapons’… indeed, some of these are so magnificent, can’t say. See: GLMRS. That super-turbo, GPS-guided small diameter bomb (SDB) - a weapon that proved so magnificently efficient when deployed by the Israeli flying supermen against Palestinian civilians.

What’s my point? Well, mere 25 years since the Pentagon began denying that the Iraqis are jamming GPS signals over Iraq – thus causing lots of US-made GPS-homing ammunition to miss their target (yes, yes, that was back in the 1990s) - it turns out the Russians ‘can’ jam GLMRS ground-launched glide bombs. As a consequence, the Ukrainians stopped deploying GLMRS’ in combat.

Stunning. Simply stunning…

But, I’m biased, clueless, controversial, and unfair. And I should criticise somebody in Europe instead. OK. Then… well, my favourite, Macron was rather quiet this week; while my spare favourite, Sunak was busy enriching the British oligarchy through exploiting ‘gaps’ in Western sanctions to transship and re-sell Russian oil exports. This is not even something new. Must find somebody else…

Hey! How about the Greek government? Or the Spanish?

The former finds that it’s under such an existential threat that it can’t provide a single Patriot battery to Ukraine. Be sure, I can perfectly understand such feelings: the brotherly Greek oligarchy is still excelling in avoiding to pay taxes, so also on those from profits from transhipping the Russian oil to India and then back to the EU… The case of Spain is as transparent as a glass of marmalade, too: any quick look at the map of Europe is making it obvious that, geographically, the country is the next on Putin’s ‘to do list’, right after Ukraine…

….and so, the 50 nifty PAC missiles that could’ve helped the PSU the last night, were not around when the Russians deployed Kinzhals, Kh-101/555, and Kalibr cruise missiles to target infrastructure in western Ukraine, and Kh-22s and Kh-59/69s in the Dnipro area. Between facilities known to have been hit were:

-          Kryvi Rih TPP

-          Burshtyn TPP (Ivano-Frankivsk)

A pre-war photo of the Burshtyn TPP, attacked by the Russians the last night…

To make sure, I…. hkhm…‘love’ experts ‘on the other side of the tribune’, too. Especially the one who stressed that the Russians now have plentiful of experience with Kinzhals (‘best hypersonic cruise missiles available’), and now know better how to deploy them effectively. By side that it took that expert only 1,5 years to figure something as super-smart at that, but mind: he’s still about 1,5 years away from realising that the VKS ceased deploying Kinzhals against areas protected by Patriots and thus they’re not shot down…

Yes, I can be gleeful, too… So also in this case: because of a certain video that appeared this morning, I have a feeling like if somebody in Kyiv has listened to my ‘prayers’. Certainly enough, the rank and file of Putin’s PRBS-industrialists couldn’t stop wondering why has the PSU targeted their holly S-400 Gods of War at the Crimea, a week ago, and then deployed its ADM-160 decoys over the same area, yesterday, but somehow…. well, this morning it turned out that ‘somebody there’ has hit the Kushchevskaya AB, in the Kuban area. And then hit not just ‘anything’ at that air base, but a storage dump with dozens of kits for UMPK glide bombs.

Sure, this is unlikely to mean much to you. But, I’m surprised with the effectiveness of this air strike, can’t say. So much so, I cannot but wonder: how could this happen?!? Who has ordered this attack?!?

Took me another cup of cappuccino to recall it: whenever in doubt, it must be the simplest explanation. So, also in this case. For example: it could be one of responsible generals in Kyiv was too busy providing another interview to the media, and somebody else then exploited the opportunity to bring the decision for this strike instead…?

….what a sleazy son of a gun…

(Yup. Wars are nothing else but fun – when one is sarchotic…)

…almost as sleazy as a group of Ukrainians that began hunting Russian UAVs active over the Dnipro (city) - with help of light machine guns, ‘installed’ on light sports aircraft (Yak-52s). Have shot down four UAVs so far. One can only wish them ‘good hunting’… and safety from VKS’ MiG-31s and Su-35s…

On the battlefields in eastern Ukraine, there was much less fun…

***

BATTLE OF DONBAS

Avdiivka… sigh… I’ll have to change the ‘designation’ of this sector - and draw a new map, too… essentially, it turned out it was the 15^th Motor-Rifle Brigade (in cooperation with the Arbat Battalion, which is ex-Wagner PMC) that took Soloviove (see photo below), and then continued attacking west and south of it. Apparently, the 47^th Mech didn’t try to hold very though but withdrew in the light of massive Russian air strikes and artillery barrages.

The 55th and the 114th Motor-Rifle Brigades are claiming this success for themselves, too.

This is leaving the 30^th Motor-Rifle as the VSRF unit in control of Ocheretyne….which is, meanwhile, completely under the Russian control. Indeed, this brigade pushed in two prongs further West, the last two days.

East of that area: Novokalynove is almost completely under the Russian control: indeed, the 277^th ‘Spetsnaz’ is meanwhile pushing into Keramik (where I’m using ‘Spetsnaz’ for what Ukrainians know merely as ‘277^th Rifle Battalion’, but I know as ‘277^th Special Purpose Battalion’… so, damn and correct me as much as you like: it’s surely going to make helluva lots of difference for the survivors of the 115^th Mech to ‘know’ they’ve been overrun by ‘just another Russian rifle battalion’). That said, considering the ferocity of the Russian assaults on Novokalynovka, meanwhile I’ve got only few doubts that the 90^th Tank Division is involved there.

Further south: the 47^th is still holding out inside western Berdychi. Probably because the 74^th Motor-Rifle is on the best way to beat all the records in rapid collection of catastrophic losses. Sadly, this is making too little difference in grand total. If for no other reason then because the Russians have at least three mobik-regiments to quickly re-fill it…

For their part, the Russians are claiming to have forced the ZSU into withdrawal on the entire line from Soloviove in the north to Semenivka in the south (and that already yesterday).

Never mind: Putin’s PRBS-industrialists are praising the capture of two fields south of Semenivka - a result of a well-organised and logical Ukrainian withdrawal back towards Umanske and Netailove - as if the Russian troops in question have captured nothing less than Kharkiv. That is called ‘total collapse of the (Ukrainian) frontline’…

Yet further south: at least three Russian brigades are assaulting Krasnohorivka from the East and South. A single battalion of the 3^rd Assault deployed there is holding out, though… partially thanks to such successful Russian de-mining efforts like this one:

….and, certainly, despite the Russian deployment of ‘turtle tanks’ like this T-72 - which is much belittled in the social media, while very effective in actual combat.

SOUTH-WESTERN DONETSK, SOUTHERN ZAPORIZHZHYA & DNIPRO

….returning to the battlefields of the Ukrainian counteroffensive of the last summer, and confirming something Don has mentioned in his last review: the Russians have launched a major assault on Urozhaine: a place south of Velyka Novosilka, liberated by the ZSU back in July the last year. As first, they’ve bombed it by UMPKs for some 3-4 days, then assaulted by the ground troops from the south. As far as I can say, they are ‘at least within the southern outskirts’, if not deeper inside the place.

The ZSU-controlled Robotyne salient is holding out, regardless of all the possible Russian claims about ‘advance’. Finally, Ukrainian Naval Infantry seems to have managed to widen its Krymky bridgehead in western direction.