Ukraine - Russia Conflict

I was going to do a thread today on the implications of Ukraine’s offensive around Kharkiv. Instead, I have pushed that to tomorrow in order to discuss the Russian river crossing operation over the Severskyi Donets this week in #Ukraine.

1/Ukraine’s 17th Tank Brigade reportedly targeted a Russian pontoon bridge crossing with several destroyed tanks and BMPs. ДвіЩ
2/ This Russian river crossing has gained attention because it resulted in the loss of (probably) a battalion tactical group and some critical engineer equipment. The reality is, it is worse than that.
3/ Before examining why, let’s explore these types of operations. Assault river crossings are one of the most difficult combined arms operations possible. Not only do all the elements of the ground team need to come together in a tightly orchestrated series of events.
4/ The combined arms team also needs to deceive the enemy about crossing site and timings. And, the combined arms team is quite vulnerable while it waits to cross once the crossing site is established - regardless of how much dispersal and camouflage is conducted.
5/ I had a Brigade commander once who had us focus on these operations because if we could successfully undertake assault river crossings as a Brigade, we could do any other combined arms mission. He was right.
6/ These operations are generally conducted in 6 phases. First is recon and planning. Why is it needed, where will it be done, what is the follow-on mission on the other side of the river, and what info is needed to bring it all together?
7/ Of course, the defender on the other side of the river has also probably done an ‘engineer appreciation’ to find likely crossing sites. These will be high priority areas to cover in their recon and surveillance plan. Here is a good example of this:
8/ Second is ‘suppression’. This means to suppress the enemy in the vicinity of the crossing site. This includes denying them close recon, surveillance or direct / indirect fire onto the crossing site (both sides), exit routes on the far bank, and assembly areas on the home bank.
9/ Next is ‘obscure’. You don’t want the enemy to see what you are doing. This can including doing things at night, smoke, electronic jamming, feints at other sites, etc. And of course, you want to destroy as much of the enemy in the vicinity of the crossing site before crossing.
10/ Fourth, is ‘secure’. In this phase, friendly forces secure routes to the crossing site, assembly areas, as well as home and far banks of the crossing. Forces are also pushed across the ‘gap’ to secure the far back and ensure the enemy can’t interfere with bridging operations.
11/ Fifth, and the part combat engineers love - ‘reduce’. Reducing obstacles means the obstacle (in this case a river) is crossed and negated as an obstacle to friendly maneuver. Normally, a brigade would have at least two crossing sites with a 3rd in reserve.
12/ The final phase is ‘assault’. The ground maneuver force (supported by army aviation and Air Force assets), artillery, electronic warfare, etc crosses the bridges and shakes itself out on the far side of the crossing in preparation to continue the advance.
13/ I would add that Military Police are really important in this endeavour. There is a lot of directing traffic. This is particularly important to ensure the units prioritized by higher commanders cross first. This can get emotional at times - everyone wants to be first across.
14/ Of course, once the crossing site is established, it needs to be protected - on the ground, from air attack and from other sources of threat. In Australia, during training exercises, we often had to protect against crocodile attacks.
15/ The crossing site (regardless of how many bridges or ferries there are) is normally controlled by a regulating headquarters to ensure it is used in accordance with the wider scheme of maneuver leading up to the crossing, and the operations planned after it.
16/ And it would be remiss of me not to mention logisticians. Each site needs them to refuel vehicles, recover bogged vehicles, repair bridge equipment and boats, etc.
17/ An important aspect of assault river crossings is that they are only undertaken if absolutely necessary. The resources needed - engineers, bridges, artillery - are closely husbanded by commanders. As I already mentioned, they are really hard, especially when being shot at.
18/ Therefore, such operations normally only occur on an axis of advance that is a main effort (or about to become the main effort). This has been missed by many commentators - the Russians clearly intended to invest in this axis and throw a lot of combat power down it.
19/ Consequently, this is probably a larger set back for the Russians than some have speculated. Yes, they lost a lot of vehicles - but they are used to that now. It has likely resulted in not just a BTG but probably an entire Brigade losing a large part of its combat power.
20/ Importantly, the Russians lost scarce engineer bridging equipment (and probably combat engineers too). These resources are neither cheap nor available in large quantities. And these are in high demand during an offensive.
21/ But perhaps most importantly, defeating this assault river crossing has probably denied the Russians an axis of advance they clearly thought was going to be productive for them in their eastern offensive. This is a significant set back for them.
22/ This was just a quick look at assault river crossings, how they are done, and what this week’s disaster on the Severskyi Donets river means for the Russian Army in eastern Ukraine. I hope it was useful. End
 
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Russian BMP driver swims back to shore

Excellent work of artillerymen of the 53rd separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Russian occupiers and their equipment in the eastern direction
 
M777 guns provided to Ukraine are without thier digital computers.
Source?
I have also seen these reports but what most posters forget is that majority of them were BMP-1s which are operated by UA only. So what exactly happened here. We will have to wait for few days just the way the truth about Ghost of Kieve came out who was credited with 40 kills and the snake island landing fiasco.
That story does not make since because the Russians were the only ones advancing in the Severodonetsk area. All media is reporting the destroyed assets as Russian.


Direct Lessons for Indian Army

We need well equipped Infantry to move along with Armoured And Mechanised Forces
They're also getting targeted by improvised bombs being dropped from commercial quadcopters.
 
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Direct Lessons for Indian Army

We need well equipped Infantry to move along with Armoured And Mechanised Forces
I had covered this point in my posts earlier. In urban battles, Tanks must support the Infantry and should not be used as main weapons.
I always knew that USA has the largest dumb population in the world and I had better opinion of Europeans. It seems they are no better. Over a million strong force, equipped with some of the finest western weapons and outstanding battle information, is fighting mere 200K RA forces who are using their old arsenal and yet defeating these UA forces and gaining ground everyday.
There is a huge difference in what propaganda says and what is later claimed by UA about their losses. River crossing is the most dangerous part of any ground offensive as the long range arty can just devastate anything in that limited area. It has been so even during the war between Alexander and Porus.Not just one, but multiple arty regiments are used to bombard that single point to ensure largest amount of kills and damage to the forces trying to cross the river. But the truth is that RA has not only created a bridge head but also expanded it as they did multiple point crossings. Just one pontoon bridge has been highlighted while another six have not been covered. Donets river has lots of bends in it and RA did just that. There were places where they just crossed the river without pontoon bridges. This point has not been told. Was this pontoon bridge a deception?

Americans have now openly admitted that NATO was training, arming and preparing UA for this war from 2014 itself. Now you know the anglosexon people have betrayed the people of mainland Europe. Its a war in which Ukraine is a ploy, Russia is not an enemy for US+UK but Europe is paying the price. Ukrainians and Russians are dying fighting this war. But Europeans are paying a much bigger price.

Please recollect my earlier post in seven series, I had clearly stated that in next one month, Europe will have nothing to defend itself If Russia goes to full mobilisation as all their weapon reserves have been exhausted in supplying UA. This is now being openly spoken about even in US+UK.
How many tanks does Poland have now, How many stinger missile does the NATO have with them, how many Javelins and other such weapons does the rest of Europe have if Russia decides to Invade Poland and Scandenavia or Latvia Etc? UA mobilised within first week of the war and against less than 200k Russian army, they had nearly 750K men available. But does this help? Conscripts and poorly trained soldiers add problems for battle hardened soldiers and that is the main cause of the defeat of UA. Even in India some idots are talking of Tour Of Duty soldiers. If I had my way, I will not only shoot down this proposal but also throw out all those who even considered it to be good Idea as they are unfit mentally and do not deserve to serve Indian Armed Forces. You can never ever overcome the sense of Duty of a Volunteer who decided to live and die for his nation. The xperience is gained over a period of time and not in 3-4 years. How can we have new recruits who have just a single aim to somehow survive for 3-4 years and than get a plum government job in civil. Will they ever have the committment of a professional. They will become instrumental in even in the defat of those who are far more professionals.
No one can help a person who decides to close his eyes and play a blind man. Europe is rejoicing their own destruction. This reminds me of a story

I heard in my childhood about a cat. In the night a cat saw something which was very shiny. cat decided to taste it and it started rubbing her toungue, it tasted blood. Thinking that it was easy meat, the cat started rubbing her toungue with more vigour, soon her tongue fell off. The Cat was rubbing her toungue on a Saw and the blood she tasted was her own.

May God Bless Idiots of Europe.
 
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What I'm increasingly noticing is that Russia's videos of "Mariupol residents" complaining about Azov are not actually in Mariupol, because all the nearby buildings are intact.



 
Kharkiv now clear all the way to Russian border, now to deal with the rest of Putin's nobbers.

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Some very interesting facts about the so called defat of Russians in this war which is being won by Ukraine.
  • Vietman has a total area of nearly 310K squre kms.
  • UK has 242k SqKm as its total area.
  • The Total area of North and South Korea combined is 220K sq kms.
Russians in 80 days of war have taken over 150K sqkm of Ukrainian territory. Which is more than what USA could in a decade of war with Vietnam which was less tha half of Vietnam, or 4 years in Korea and the area is nearly 75% of the total area of UK. YET RUSSIANS ARE LOSING WITH JUST 20% OF THEIR TOTAL FORCES. COME ON GUYS USE YOUR BRAIN AND NOT YOUR *censored* TO THINK.

And whom are RA fighting, THE COMPLETE NATO and members of other EU nations, Did Americans ever fight any such war or their Poodle called UK. It took USA+NATO to take over six months to completly take over Iraq comprising about 438K Sq Kms of territory with complete dominance. Yet the Russians are losing the Battle.

Just try and connect Maidan Riots of 2013 in Ukraine with the Brexit referendum in UK. Whole of Europe was kept in dark by USA and its poodle UK. They had planned it all in 2008 itself.
 
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