Why Bakhmut Is Falling
Just two days ago I reported that Bakhmut is falling. The Ukrainian soldiers there are outgunned 1 to 10 and die under artillery fire with little chance to shot back. More reports from the front have since come in. They support my dire view.
The German pro-Ukrainian news outlet Bild reported this morning that there were misgivings in the Ukrainian war leadership:
President Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi have conflicting views on how the military should handle the situation in Bakhmut, according to unnamed sources within the Ukrainian political leadership cited in a report by Bild.
Bild writes that Zaluzhnyi was deliberating a tactical withdrawal from Bakhmut weeks ago over concern for the wellbeing of his troops.
The Ukrainian government told Bild that remaining in Bakhmut was the right decision due to the serious damage it inflicted on Russian military personnel and equipment. However, according to other sources cited by the publication, the situation is at risk of becoming untenable.
"The vast majority of soldiers in Bakhmut do not understand why the city is being held," a Ukrainian military analyst told Bild on condition of anonymity.
Just hours after that item came out Zelensky's office issued a press release denying any such trouble (machine translation):
On Monday, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a regular meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff.The commanders of the operational and strategic troop groups reported on the situation on the main front lines.
The members of the Staff considered the situation in Bakhmut in particular. Assessing the course of the defense operation, the President asked Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi and Commander of the operational and strategic grouping of troops "Khortytsia" Oleksandr Syrskyi about further actions in the Bakhmut direction. They spoke in favor of continuing the defense operation and further strengthening our positions in Bakhmut.
I do not believe that Zaluzhnyi and Sirskyi gave such advice. The situation for the Ukrainians in Bakhmut (Ru: Artyomovsk) is hopeless and they certainly know it. Losses would be less if the troops would pull back to the next defense line on the higher grounds west of Bakhmut.
Source: topographic-map.com - bigger
The current situation is a mess:
Source: Live UA map - bigger
To move out of Bakhmut or to move supplies in one has to cross a 10 kilometer long corridor which is only 6 kilometer wide and completely covered by Russian artillery and ground fire. The results of attempts to run that gauntlet can be read in the Russian Defense Ministry's daily report:
In Donetsk direction, the active action of the 'Yug' Group of Forces and artillery operation have resulted in the elimination of up to 225 Ukrainian personnel, five infantry fighting vehicles, nine armoured fighting vehicles, five pickups, four motor vehicles, one Uragan MLRS, and one D-30 howitzer.One ordnance depot of 55th Artillery Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), and one U.S.-manufactured AN/TPQ-37 counterbattery warfare radar have been destroyed near Dachnoye and Chasov Yar (Donetsk People's Republic) respectively.
Losing 23 transport vehicles in a day, plus the people in them, is quite severe. It has stopped to freeze in Bakhmut and the fields are now too muddy to drive over them. Here is video of some pickups which tried and got messed up by artillery fire. All roads out are under direct Russian fire. The safest way to move in or out is thereby probably a long walk through the muddy fields.
Another map of Bakhmut:
Source: Military Land - bigger
The above map is two days old. It shows 9 Ukrainian brigade equivalents in the area. I do not know how reliable the information about those units positions is. The overview map from the same source shows a total of 13 brigade equivalents in the same area.
Source: Military Land - bigger
A full brigade has about 3,000 to 3,500 men. So there are probably 30,000 to 40,000 Ukrainian troops involved. However all these brigades have had losses. Some even had extreme losses and are now only at 30% of their original size.
In Saturday's summary Military Land authors wrote about Bakhmut:
- A road bridge was blown up in Khromove settlement, west of Bakhmut. The only remaining road from/to Bakhmut is through the fields and Ivanivske. (source)
- Given the situation in the area of Bakhmut and reports on the ground, it’s safe to assume that Russian forces captured the remaining part of northern outskirts and the area north of Tavr Meat Plant.
- The situation in Zabakhmutka (eastern part of Bakhmut) is currently covered by the fog of war. There is a possibility that Ukrainian defenders retreated from the area.
Here is another map based on Russian sources.
Source: Rybar - bigger
Yesterday the Kyiv Independent reported from near the frontline about the bad situation for the Ukrainian troops fighting there:
Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmut: ‘Our troops are not being protected’
Russia’s relentless assault on Bakhmut is sacrificing waves and waves of unprepared men being sent to their deaths.But multiple defenders of this embattled city in Donetsk Oblast feel that they are in a similar boat, according to interviews with more than a dozen soldiers currently fighting in or around Bakhmut.
During their brief visits to the nearby town of Kostiantynivka, Ukrainian infantrymen told the Kyiv Independent of unprepared, poorly-trained battalions being thrown into the front line meat grinder to survive as best they could with little support from armored vehicles, mortars, artillery, drones and tactical information.
“We don’t get any support,” says a soldier named Serhiy, who has been fighting on the front lines in Bakhmut, sitting down with his friend, also named Serhiy, for a conversation in a small cafe in the Kostiantynivka market. Both men are in their 40s but one of them is a bit older than the other.
The soldiers lack about everything that would support their defense:
They say that Russian artillery, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers are often allowed to strike Ukrainian positions for hours or days without being shut down by Ukrainian heavy weapons. Some complained of poor coordination and situational awareness, allowing this to happen or making it even worse.Mortarmen spoke of extreme ammunition scarcity and having to use weapons dating back to World War II. Drones that are supposed to provide critical reconnaissance information are also scarce and are being lost at very high rates in some parts of the battlefield.
All this leads to terrifying casualties of both dead and wounded. "The battalion came in in the middle of December… between all the different platoons, there were 500 of us," says Borys, a combat medic from Odesa Oblast fighting around Bakhmut. "A month ago, there were literally 150 of us."
“When you go out to the position, it’s not even a 50/50 chance that you’ll come out of there (alive),” says the older Serhiy. “It’s more like 30/70.”
The soldiers describe the Russian operation as small reconnaissance followed by artillery fire. This is repeated again and again until it has reached the desired result. The very reasonable application of this tactic is why I disregard claims of 'waves or Russian cannon fodder storming forward' or of 'high Russian losses'. They are obviously nonsense:
The older Serhiy says that the enemy likes to send a team of three or four expendable foot soldiers to attack and make the Ukrainians expose themselves by shooting at them. At that point, the more elite forces zero in on the defenders’ position.Once they begin exchanging fire, the Ukrainians are struck with heavier weapons like Russian mortars and rockets from Grad multiple launch rocket systems or BMP infantry fighting vehicles and BTR armored personnel carriers with machine guns.
“They get the positions where we are, establish the coordinates, then they hit us from seven to nine kilometers out with mortars,” as well as from closer by with grenade launchers, says the older Serhiy. “They wait for the house to fall so we have to jump out. The building catches fire and then they try to finish us off.”
“Their birds come out and they chase us with fire,” adds the younger Serhiy, referring to Russian UAVs, like quadcopters and Orlan-10 fixed wing drones that spot distant heavy weapons. “They hit accurately.”
As Russians destroy more and more buildings, Ukrainians keep losing more places where they can reliably take cover. Borys the medic says people have been lost when their entrenched positions collapsed from heavy Russian fire, suffocating them.
“I’ll put it like this, we should get our people out because if we don’t take off, then in the next few weeks, it’s going to be bad,” says Oleksandr. A mortarman named Illia agrees that Bakhmut is “practically encircled.”
For lack of ammunition there is no Ukrainian counter artillery fire. Infantry fighting vehicles are held back from the front. The little trained Territorial Brigades are sent in at night to be killed the next morning:
Multiple soldiers say Bakhmut troops are barely given enough time to learn to shoot a rifle – sometimes their training is just 2 weeks, before they’re dropped into the hottest parts of the most intense current battle of the war. They would have preferred for troops to get a minimum of two or three months of training before being deployed to such a hot spot.“Two weeks’ live training and they’re sent here. You can’t do that,” says the older Serhiy. “Or it’s a person who once served in the army, how long ago was that? Obviously they forgot everything.”
“We were promised that we wouldn’t be sent to the zero line right away, that at first we’d be sent to the second or third line,” he continues. “And then we came here in the middle of the night and they immediately sent us to Bakhmut.”
...
According to both soldiers named Serhiy, most brigades are insufficiently trained and lack the experience for an environment as brutal as Bakhmut. People are taken at night to a place they’d never seen before and the battle starts in the morning.“This is why positions are abandoned, people are there for the first time,” says the younger Serhiy. “I went to a position three times and was given six people who hadn’t fought at all before. We had a few dead and wounded that had to be evacuated… Our people are not being protected.”
Oleksandr confirms that while some battalions fighting in Bakhmut are well-trained and ready, most of them aren’t and many were thrown in at night without much preparation. “Yes, that’s true, my battalion was not prepared,” he says. After five months without a single break from the fighting, only half of Oleksandr’s battalion is left, he says.“They shouldn’t have rushed to throw everyone in there,” says the younger Serhiy. “Better to abandon those positions, who cares? It’s better to properly train people.”
The Kyiv Independent reporter did not ask, or did not report, what opinion the soldiers hold about Zelensky's pep talk and die-hard slogans.
I don't think that they will thank him for the experiences they have gained. They will rather use them to explain their disgust to him.
Posted by b on March 6, 2023 at 17:51 UTC | Permalink
next page »Thanks b. Not often we Aussies post first on the thread, but I couldn't sleep. Happy March 7 y'all.
Posted by: Patroklos | Mar 6 2023 18:09 utc | 2
🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦"Wagner" storm troops reached the Т-34-85 tank monument in Bakhmut
https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/status/1632754048041377792
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 6 2023 18:11 utc | 3
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 6 2023 18:09 utc | 1
Ach! Beaten by a Viking! Very right too. The absolute disdain for human life is a hallmark of the neocon MO.
Posted by: Patroklos | Mar 6 2023 18:11 utc | 4
> The German pro-Ukrainian news outlet Bild
Isn’t anyone who turns Ukrainians into forces to threaten and eventually carry out suicidal attacks on Russia *not* “pro-Ukraine” but rather “anti-Ukraine”?
Shouldn’t we just say “pro-NATO” ?
Posted by: natokraine | Mar 6 2023 18:24 utc | 5
From the Russian side of the Bakhmut/Artemovsk frontline
https://russian.rt.com/ussr/article/1114778-frontovye-uroki-novobrancy-veterany-donbass
Front-line lessons for recruits: how veterans of Donbass train mobilized
The Volunteer International Brigade "Pyatnashka" are recognized veterans of military operations in the Donbass. Today they are sharing their military experience gained over many years with those who were at the front just recently. About veterans and recruits of a special military operation - in the report of an RT correspondent.
At the positions of the international brigade "Pyatnashka" there is a master class for the mobilized. This is not a training ground, but a real battle.
In Donbass, a brigade led by DPR hero Akhra Avidzba, alias Abkhaz, has been fighting since 2014. Pyatnashka veterans look young, but behind them are dozens of the most difficult battles. It became an international brigade because people from several republics of the former USSR, also Czechs and Slovaks, serve in its ranks, and “Pyatnashka” because there were 15 people in the original squad.
Some of the mobilized for whom today's lesson is arranged arrived at the front just a couple of weeks ago.
All this happens in just a second. The fighter rolls back into the trench and runs with a grenade launcher pipe along the trench to a new place. Dry clicks in the frosty air show that the Ukrainian machine gunner is immediately trying to find in short bursts the point where the "surprise" came from.
At the next position, the grenade launcher pulls out the pin from the “carrot” (the slang name for the RPG projectile), rises above the parapet. The camouflage net is inflated with a bubble - the next projectile is sent towards the enemy. A machine gun immediately sounds nearby, someone from the brigade adds fuss to the Ukrainian “partners”.
"Contrary to logic and common sense"
“We water them from three trunks at the same time, constantly changing positions. It is very important! You can't shoot from one spot. Khokhols run around the trenches, they don’t even shoot back, they just shout a good obscenity,” already in the dugout, the Pyatnashka fighters Topol, Nemets and Tihiy share their experience with the mobilized.
Poplar caricaturely grabs his head and bends at the waist, showing how the Ukrainian military, who lost their will, desperately rushed through the trenches under heavy fire.
“Keep in mind, they can either cut themselves off there, or overeat something and then go completely stupid. By the manner of shooting, this immediately becomes clear. If, say, for two or three hours they stupidly sit in milk, like an apple, without any sense and do not remove their fingers from the triggers, then it means that they have definitely abused something, ”says Nemets.
Many soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, especially from the nationalist battalions, are heavily addicted to drugs, Nemets is sure. Against logic, common sense and a sense of self-preservation, such people can attack across the field in full growth or leave the trench to talk in front of everyone on a mobile phone.
The fighters of "Fifteen" are moving to a serious tone.
“An enemy sniper is often encrypted under a machine gun. The machine gun distracts and frightens, makes you nervous, reveals where you are. The sniper keeps track of all this and hits already pointwise. Therefore, I don’t advise anyone to twitch, lean out during machine-gun fire once again, ”says a fighter with the call sign Quiet.
“One more piece of advice: pay attention to communication, to the broadcast. Is there contact with everyone? If people don’t get in touch, it’s immediately an alarm,” Topol continues to instruct. “So they’ve already killed everyone there. Just take it that way. Is the alarm worth it?
“Yes, grenades, light and noise,” list the mobilized tripwires that they put up in dangerous directions on the way to shelter.
“The war does not forgive indifference, laxity, and even with a long stay in a position, one cannot slide into apathy,” instructors from Pyatnashka tell their new comrades-in-arms. Tykhy, using the example of the Ukrainian military standing opposite, explains how the desire to do everything anyhow leads to casualties.
“There, each new shift comes with the idea of sitting out, then dumping it in the rear - and it all burns with a blue flame. Nobody brings anyone up to date. They stand in positions that we have already shot at, so every time we almost unmistakably get into the BC warehouse. Each new shift begins with them shouting: “How did it happen?” Quiet raises a finger meaningfully.
The way to work and back
According to the rotation, the fighters of "Pyatnashka" are replaced, their comrades from the brigade enter the positions. They hardly talk, do not say goodbye, only hug and shake hands.
"Loaf" - the workhorse of military roads - flies to the rear from the front line. “To be honest, I wanted to warm up mobs for something. Maybe even yell at them. It's useful at the forefront. Better angry but alive than relaxed and dead. But there’s no reason, the men are doing everything right, ”Nemets explains his pedagogical method.
The car passes by another pile driver - a structure installed on the surface above the coal mine, where lifting installations are located. The mine does not work, the pile driver is mutilated by shells, but it still resembles the Eiffel Tower. “This is where I worked. 15 years plowed. Now I have to travel to work. I changed my specialty, ”Tikhiy said phlegmatically.
There are many in the brigade who have retrained from a worker, cook or accountant to a professional soldier or officer and have remained so. Personnel military with training - units. They received their training in the brigade in practice.
Already at the entrance to Donetsk, the fighters turn on their phones. Previously, especially in positions, it was categorically impossible to do this. Through mobile, the enemy finds the location.
Then everything will repeat itself, as it has been for years, in a circle: departure to the front line, battle, road back, “I'm back” on the smartphone screen. Now such messages will be sent not only by Pyatnashka volunteers, but also by their mobilized students.
Posted by: Oblomovka daydream | Mar 6 2023 18:34 utc | 7
@Patroklos | Mar 6 2023 18:11 utc | 4
The absolute disdain for human life is a hallmark of the neocon MO.Yes, the only "logic" in this is that the neocons in Washington DC (Nuland et. al) want to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian so they can start a war against China.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 6 2023 18:35 utc | 8
Amazing to watch Deutschland neutered as the U.S. takes on a new Mistress - Poland.
Posted by: kupkee | Mar 6 2023 18:36 utc | 9
Hello Norwegian at No.1. I don't think that Zelensky is being 'told' to do this. I think this comes directly from him, his megalomania, hubris and cowardice as he doesn't want to accept responsibility for it all so he prefers to carry on sending men in than face a complete PR disaster and the wrath of his own population.
I think he's hanging on by a thread at the moment due to NATO weapons and USA financial support. But the Sword of Damacles' thread is straining and it will fall. In any normal war type circumstances such as these the Govt would have surrendered 6 months ago as the fighting capacity is so reduced as to be rendered almost useless.
Interestingly enough, I can't now remember which Radio station it was but I was listening to an interview with a former Mercenary who said in essence, that if the Ukie Govt is asking us to believe there are some 150,000 mercenaries operating in Poland now and that thousands and thousands have already died, then he is afraid to say they are telling lies because, to the best of his knowledge, he doubts that there are that many mercenaries in the world at the moment.
Posted by: Jo Dominich | Mar 6 2023 18:36 utc | 10
@Jo Dominich | Mar 6 2023 18:36 utc | 10
Hello Norwegian at No.1. I don't think that Zelensky is being 'told' to do this.Zelensky is a professional actor. He used to play the president in a TV-show called "Servant of the People" before playing the president from a party called "Servant of the People". It is not a TV show anymore, but he still plays from a script controlled by the neocons in the US.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 6 2023 18:42 utc | 11
Good afternoon, Radio Free Europe! That's the latest from "Kiev Bobsky" on why Bakhmut is not strategic.
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Posted by: Chris | Mar 6 2023 18:46 utc | 12
Thanks b, well pleased you gave a spotlight to the Bild article.
Well bejeez. Here it is. We now know why Olaf Scholz just stood there beside Biden, Feb., 07, 2022, like a deer in the headlights when Biden promised to put an end to NordStream and months later, KaBooooom.
There are two descriptors for Olaf:
1. He is an accomplice to an act of terror on his citizens
2. the other descriptor, It ain't pretty...starts with a Trai....in need of a Ceausescu gift.
See the tidbit below, now it's all the way to the Polish border for ALL of UKR.
Just up at RT:
German chancellor identifies who can stop Ukraine bloodshed
Olaf Scholz says Russian President Vladimir Putin must withdraw troops from the neighboring country as a basis for peace talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds the key to ending the bloody conflict in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said. He insisted Moscow must pull its troops out of the neighboring country in order for peace negotiations to take place.“It is necessary that Putin understands that he will not succeed with his invasion and imperialistic aggression. And that he has to withdraw troops. This is the basis for talks,” Scholz argued.
Speaking with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, the German leader said Ukraine was “ready for peace, but there must be something done – and this has to be done by Putin.”
He was asked whether he thought there was a prospect of a compromise by which Ukraine could cede Crimea and parts of Donbass to Russia in exchange for certain security guarantees like NATO and EU membership. In response, the German chancellor said the ball was in Moscow’s court and that there would be “no decisions without the Ukrainians.”[.]
BASF guys and gals with a query: what is the interest rate on that Swissy account?
Posted by: Likklemore | Mar 6 2023 18:47 utc | 13
Losing Bahmut is bad.
Freeing up Wagner to conquer Ugledar before Ukraine's offensive in the South would be a Desaster.
Compared to that, the loss of a couple of thousand mobilized men with no battle experience to keep Wagner busy is a small price to pay.
Posted by: Marvin | Mar 6 2023 18:48 utc | 14
UAF is still reinforcing this field passage between Bakhmut and Kanal in an attempt to keep the route open (however relative term that is). The only strategic reason to do that is if they manage to achieve some other offensive elsewhere, while still keeping Wagner/RUAF tied up around Bakhmut. If there is some offensive, it can be anywhere, but Zaporizhe and Kupyansk front have been mentioned as some of the more likely ones. Another option they might try something north of Bakhmut, or counterattack from Chasov yar to the southeast.
If they manage to do that, it might have, but not guaranteed to, to have been worth it. If they don't, it definitely wasn't worth it to lose all those men. I think this too is one of the more decisive battles in Donbass.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 6 2023 18:53 utc | 15
Worst case scenario being discussed as the advance of UA stalls … the old ret. generals and spooks coming out of the woodwork …
Crimea As Endgame Before Going M.A.D.
this is so sad it is happening.. the west under the usa leadership here is as someone up above said - 'pure evil'.... when will they stop this madness?? please stop this madness sending innocent people to die.... i agree with many of the posters comments.. thank you all..
Posted by: james | Mar 6 2023 18:58 utc | 17
And related to my post at # 13
Olaf Scholz flew to D.C. had a one hour one-on-one chat with Biden. No aides were present
Ukraine: A War to End All Wars in Europe
by M. Bhadrakumar
on the frayed unity - waning support for Ukraine
The dash for the White House in Washington on Friday by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz remains a riddle wrapped in a mystery. Scholz landed in DC, drove to the White House and was received by President Biden in Oval Office for a conversation that lasted over an hour. No aides were present. And he flew back to Berlin.Associated Press reported cryptically, “If any agreements were reached or plans made, the White House wasn’t saying.” Scholz had insisted while leaving Berlin that he and Biden “want to talk directly with each other.” Scholz mentioned “a global situation where things have become very difficult.” He said, “It is important that such close friends can talk about all of these questions together, continually.”[.]
In remarks before the meeting, Biden effusively welcomed Scholz and paid tribute to the latter’s “strong and steady leadership.” Scholz briefly responded that “this is a very, very important year because of the very dangerous threat to peace that comes from Russia invading Ukraine.” The optics of the White House readout is that the two leaders “reiterated their commitment to impose costs on Russia for its aggression for as long as necessary.”
[.]
Meanwhile, there is frustration building up in Europe that the continent finds itself in a cul-de-sac. So far, the lack of European cohesion provided policy space for the US to divide and rule. However, if Europe finds itself today in a subordinate position, it must also own part of the blame for it. Europe’s inability to define its own core interests so far weakened its internal cohesion, while the lack of internal cohesion condemned it to subaltern role.
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/march/06/ukraine-a-war-to-end-all-wars-in-europe/
The way Scholz sees it Germany is the 52nd state of the USA.
Posted by: Likklemore | Mar 6 2023 19:03 utc | 18
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 6 2023 18:53 utc | 15
One other note to add is that Bakhmut is sapping really tons of UAF forces too, which are some of the better troops available, won't be available elsewhere. They are using these better troops to keep the route open, as mentioned.
So unless an offensive elsewhere is heavily reinforced by foreign troops, they might be too weak, and Russians might still manage by using their old active defense tactics and airpower (local pullbacks and counter attacks) elsewhere to sap those offensives. In Zaporizhe, or Ugledar front they can't afford to give up too much land, though.
The question of the Leopard and other Soviet tanks is also open. But there's still a lot of fog, no one really knows how many troops UAF has available, the best guess they had at least 35k on the Zaporizhe front and maybe 50k at the very maximum at Bakhmut.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 6 2023 19:03 utc | 19
Posted by: Oui | Mar 6 2023 18:54 utc | 16
Crimea As Endgame Before Going M.A.D.
I do think that if things really go pear-shaped for Zelensky, that is the time of maximum danger. Surely his puppet masters won't take it well and will try some major provocation to shape the narrative.
Perhaps we should root for an anemic UAF counter-offensive somewhere, to "keep hope alive."
Posted by: Chris Peters | Mar 6 2023 19:05 utc | 20
Oh but this is all by design.
This is Mitt Romney today:
"Putin’s Russia is not our friend and it is China’s most powerful ally. Supporting Ukraine weakens an adversary, enhances our national security advantage, and requires no shedding of American blood."
Its all working splendidly to plan so far. Russians are dying. Probably at 200 per day or a bit more.
Americans are happy with thid arrangement.
"To the last Ukranian"
Posted by: Comandante | Mar 6 2023 19:11 utc | 21
I only have this to say. Jesus Christ! Those poor souls. Being thrown into fires of hell to make Biden and his weasel administration officials happy.
Posted by: Jose Garcia | Mar 6 2023 19:12 utc | 22
Nice that map showing altitudes in the region. You can see the Russians do not need to capture Chasov Yar if they want to advance to Kramatorsk/Slaviansk through the highway they already control. They only need to neutralize Ukrainian artillery systems in Chasov Yar.
Posted by: Ignacio | Mar 6 2023 19:14 utc | 23
Summarizing the drone attacks on Engels airport: United States assets in Ukraine send drones in civilian air corridors to attack Russian military airports where Russian bomber planes carrying nuclear bombs are stationed, while asking to inspect the Russian airports they've just bombed, so they can improve their aim.
Seen this way, Russia suspending the treaty that allows the US military to visit Russian military bases seems the epitome of self-restraint.
Posted by: Passerby | Mar 6 2023 19:15 utc | 24
Posted by: Passerby | Mar 6 2023 19:15 utc | 24
It's very same as OSCE provided target coordinates for Ukraine's artillery in Donbass. And for all anyone knows, IAEA might have been target designating around Zaporizhe NPP. They are all lowest possible life forms.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 6 2023 19:21 utc | 25
Marvin #14
There are many Russian Regular Army units working alongside Wagner to take Artyomovsk aka Bakhmut.
Without that partnership Wagner would be butchered in a day and without Wagner Russians gradual advance could stop. See Weeb Union yesterday for an excellent view of the partnership.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 6 2023 19:28 utc | 26
How can Scholz talk with Biden without aides? Biden needs aides. Hearing aides. Speech aides. Continence aides. Mental cognition aides.
Posted by: Jacq | Mar 6 2023 19:29 utc | 27
tass.com ( official russia msm ) says that 10k ukro-nazis remain in bakmut
IMHO this is not unlike mariupol, it could take years if the salt-mines are full of food, on the other hand assuming they're out of food&ammo, then its just a seige at this point, but could still take months for them to 'come out' in the meantime they can make reconstruction impossible above ground.
more&more terrorist attacks on russian soil to the east, the ukro-nazi's are no longer going to get bunched up, they're going to scatter to the winds and go full terrorist on russian borders
the alt-msm talking heads of ukro-russo war have been +6 months say bakmut is falling;
Seems like Russia is in no hurry, its just the grifters of the internet keep repeating the same story; Learned helplessness is a real thing, exhaustion is real; All sides are played by CIA
Even the news is getting thin and lots of sites like thesaker.is are dropping out, either from threats or exhaustion
Posted by: paramacetol | Mar 6 2023 19:31 utc | 28
At some point, Zelensky will be coup'd as part of corruption scandal and military will take direct control and proceed to negotiate a new Ukraine, trying to secure as many western corporate rebuilding contracts as possible.
Re the Romney quote above - no 'american blood' spilled. But oceans of human blood spilled. Are Americans The Chosen 2.0? (Don't answer that.)
Karma is coming to the USA.
Posted by: gottlieb | Mar 6 2023 19:31 utc | 29
Or perhaps the Ukie army wants to keep the RF busy in Bahmut while getting ready for a Southern offensive in Zapharochia.
Posted by: expat | Mar 6 2023 19:32 utc | 30
Posted by: expat | Mar 6 2023 19:32 utc | 30
The RF still hasn't deployed its 300.000 mobilized.
Posted by: Oblomovka daydream | Mar 6 2023 19:37 utc | 31
Artyomovsk aka Bakhmut is but one battle on a large front. The reason for significance is the Uke fanatics must destroy Donetsk to appease their hatred. They are still shelling the civilian city since 2014.
Fanatics!
And so Artyomovsk aka Bakhmut sucks them in no matter how pointless, how cruel, how obscene. These barnacles on the arse of humanity were fostered and installed in the Ukraine government and army and every ministry by the USA NATO team. The same evil logic created and disseminated ISIS, destroyed Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya...
If Russia succeeds in dragging these monsters and their unfortunate press ganged forces into the vortex in Donbas that will benefit long term peace. It is an ugly path but that is where we have arrived.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 6 2023 19:52 utc | 32
The Guardian just reported that Russia’s mercenary Wagner force “could be in peril” in Bakhmut due to lack of ammunition and they may be being set up as the scapegoat if Russia loses the war. Are both sides running out of bullets to kill each other?
Posted by: Sick and Tired | Mar 6 2023 19:52 utc | 33
"I have difficulty imagining what a US war against China would look like. What little has been divulged by US military sources indicates it would be a missile war. That would only result in a lot of casualties and senseless destruction of property. There would still be almost zero likelihood of a successful troop landing on the Chinese mainland, and maybe 5% chance of a regime change."
China would rebuild quickly, the US not so much.
Posted by: Sanctions R US | Mar 6 2023 19:42 utc | 32
Yes, I do too, have trouble imagining what it would look like. Short and not pretty, mainly. I have trouble imagining putting together an expeditionary force. Does anybody here still know how to do that? It's all been big talk and small potatoes since Iraq/2003 IIRC. Our merchant marine is a skeleton built on hype. This Ukraine war is the biggest thing since then, 20 years, filled with Pentagon happy talk.
As I have said before, its like your thumb trying to attack your hand. "Stupid" is not an adequate description.
Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 6 2023 19:53 utc | 34
Admonition to b, barflies and other commentators:
Do NOT label the supporters of the Maidan regime (media, politicians, celebrities, "scholars" etc.) pro-Ukrainian. They are just anti-Russian actors, supporting an odious regime that has inflicted incalculable harm to the Ukrainian people. It is downright perverse to describe as such those contemptible sociopaths who are willing to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.
Now, one may wonder why the Russians masochistically use that label for the anti-Russian crowd, but then again the have not been the brightest bulbs around, especially in PR terms. Still, there is no need for free-of-charge propaganda for the Anglo-American empire.
Posted by: Constantine | Mar 6 2023 20:08 utc | 35
@uncle tungsten | 26
>>Without that partnership Wagner would be butchered in a day and without Wagner >>Russians gradual advance could stop. See Weeb Union yesterday for an excellent view >>of the partnership.
To my thinking, this is a problem for the Russian Army. The Russians have superiority in just about every category: Artillery, Ammunition, numbers, equipment. Yet, seemingly, is only capable of advancing if Wagner is at the point of the spear ?
It's hard to know for certain, since Wagner promotes themselves. It's also possible that the Russians really do put low casualties first - I wont argue with that, if they want to trade time for the lives of their soldiers.
However, we cant completely dismiss what we see: day after day the pocket stays open and the fight goes on.
Wagner are not supermen, no soldier is. Going into the fight day after day exhausts the victorious as well as the defeated.
In the end, we have to admit that we are observers, very far from the fight and seeing everything through lens that other people and agendas control.
Posted by: Dan Farrand | Mar 6 2023 20:10 utc | 36
Pentagon is Desperate! The Trap is Sprung! Kyiv sent its Strategic Reserves to Bakhmut!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55e0U0ZX2O0
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 6 2023 20:19 utc | 37
Sick and tired no. 34
Didn't you hear, they are fighting with shovels now.
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Mar 6 2023 20:23 utc | 38
Now Bachmut is good to tie Wagner ???
Correct !
Thesis :
Wagner allegedly threatened to withdraw his troops from Bachmut because of the lack of ammunition, allegedly there is a dispute with the person responsible?
thesis
They want to withdraw Wagner troops from Bachmut... without having to say where they are going!
The Russian troops around Bachmut would no longer need the Wagner troops to conquer Bachmut or to bind more and more Ukrainian troops there and in the second line that is being built!
The "argument" with Wagner can be a ruse....????
Posted by: mo3 | Mar 6 2023 20:28 utc | 39
Putin on verge of death has re-entered the news cycle:
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/vladimir-putin-cryogenic-oxygen-tank
Posted by: jayc | Mar 6 2023 20:30 utc | 40
Report from Donbass Devushka earlier:
Chasov Yar, helicopters of the Armed Forces...Wagner has make a breach there already.
Posted by: donten | Mar 6 2023 20:35 utc | 41
Interview by PoliWera Youtube channel with Scott Ritter, with Andrei Martyanov acting as translator for the interviewer, Vera Bytko.
From Andrei:
Basically, France and her ambiguous leader have been shown their place, especially against the background of Russia's respectful and equal relation with Russia's African partners. Europe continues its fall and it only underscores the necessity of US, Russia and China finding their modus vivendi, the rest of the world will follow. Needless to say, this modus vivendi cannot and will not anymore be based on any kind of hegemony, be that real or self-proclaimed. This topic, partially, was also discussed between Vera Bytko, Scott Ritter and me today. It is both in Russian and English, with my translation.Forestalling some Russian "corrections" in terms of "you should have translated it this way instead of that"(c), I would suggest to offer their free services for the next time Vera will be conducting interviews with American guests. I did my best. Anyhow, enjoy if you will.
"Уходя, гасите свет". Как "разводят" Европу. Андрей Мартьянов и Скотт Риттер в прямом эфире
"When you leave, turn off the light." How Europe is being "bred". Andrey Martyanov and Scott Ritter live
Two military analysts: Andrey Martyanov and Scott Ritter - will answer questions from viewers of the PolitWera channel live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpnVYRksqTg
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 6 2023 20:35 utc | 42
Posted by: jayc | Mar 6 2023 20:30 utc | 42
The emergence of "Putin gonna die!" propaganda is always a good barometer for how badly the war is going for the West.
Basically it is a form of copium, sort of like a traumatized child grasping for their teddy bear.
Posted by: Chris | Mar 6 2023 20:38 utc | 43
hehe I still love the cakeman (Prigozhin ofc)
he trolls as ever - as if wagners could have any deficit than real musical instruments on the fronts ,)
Posted by: Macpott | Mar 6 2023 20:40 utc | 44
Southfront has article of 16 year old Ukrainian committing suicide after burying his father and then getting drafted himself. Horrible.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 6 2023 20:48 utc | 45
"Putin on verge of death has re-entered the news cycle:
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/vladimir-putin-cryogenic-oxygen-tank
Posted by: jayc | Mar 6 2023 20:30 utc | 42"
Thats nothing a few months ago they were reporting Putin fell down his stairs at home and pooped all over himself due to the terminal ass cancer he is suffering from.
"It was a real mess" according to an insider
LoL
Posted by: Comandante | Mar 6 2023 20:48 utc | 46
Prigozhin said today (according to Intel Slava Z on Telegram):
"🇷🇺 The question of my political ambitions was repeatedly discussed. I have no political ambitions. Our task is to fight and protect the interests of the Russian Federation."
Evgeny Prigozhin (owner of Wagner PMC)
This is because there are people in the Russian government and the MoD who obviously not point believe he has or might have political ambitions in the future but also think that those (hypothetical) ambitions would make him a threat to their positions. That is why Wagner was already sabotaged once and according to Westernaganda is being sabotaged again. These people would literally rather lose the conflict than risk their sinecures.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Mar 6 2023 20:50 utc | 47
"Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy removed Oleksandr Yakushevmthe deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), as well as four lower-ranking officials, according to the text of decrees on the presidential website."
Among those removed are chiefs of the SBU departments of state secrets and procurement, as well as regional heads in Zaporizhzhia and Sumy. The decrees didn’t explain reasons for the reshuffle.
Posted by: Chris | Mar 6 2023 20:50 utc | 48
Rolling thru the countryside, burning Bahkmut in the distance:
Posted by: donten | Mar 6 2023 20:51 utc | 49
Posted by: Dan Farrand | Mar 6 2023 20:10 utc | 38
The pocket will never close, for reasons which have been gone over in detail by many posters. Bottom line, technology obviates the need for a tactical encirclement, as an operational one serves the same purpose, without the risk.
The Russian Army, including Wagner and the militias is conducting defensive actions across the front, to secure defensive positions and shorten the line of contact. Only when these lines are secured and reinforced can any plans for an offensive be put into action. Most of the MSM and a number of commentators and posters, in alternative media, have only only a surface understanding of military operations, relying instead on partisan sources to flesh out their superficial narratives; or simply transform subjective opinions into objective facts.
To them, if Russia is attacking it must mean an offensive, and if Wagner exploit their lax Opsec to blow their own trumpet (or in their case, play first violin) it must mean they are the only troops attacking. These after all are the people who told me that it doesn’t matter about calling an APC a tank, as the public is ignorant and anyway‘tank’ has more ‘emotional impact’!.
Posted by: Milites | Mar 6 2023 20:53 utc | 51
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64855760
The misery of Propaganda.
If you've followed the war you will remember that around a year ago stories started to appear explaining that Russia lacked munitions and would soon have to stop...
Newest iteration, and reaching a high of stupidity, we're told that Russians attack Ukrainians with shovels !! Just think about it : charging guys armed with kalashnikovs and other automatic weapons with shovels...
Here BBC is just trying to unconsciously raise the audience's memory of zombie films. Which in turn imply that Russians are mindless killing machines, pathological and suicidal... In a sort of post modern subliminal racism.
It's a pity BBC thinks it's audience is dumb enough to fall for that. (How much better it thinks of its audience compared to the Russian trooper is debatable)
Even worse, if you think about it, since Russia is progressing : it would mean that it's recruits are capable, with shovels, to beat Ukrainian with automatic weapons. What a military feat !!!
Oh, and the source of that brilliant piece of British free press democratic "journalism" ?
I let you see for yourself...
https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1632270968868466689?t=oRJaHv3s3w8Lg7sbvkt-Dg&s=19
Posted by: Saracen's Head | Mar 6 2023 21:06 utc | 52
What the empire’s war with China will be like? That depends upon who controls the opening moves.
First recognize that Chinese cities are incredibly densely populated. Chinese people are happy with that because in general other Chinese people are not assholes that nobody can stand being around. This, by the way, is why Americans all try to get to the suburbs... nobody can stand being around Americans for more than about five minutes, including other Americans. That said, a consequence of this is that military attacks on Chinese cities would result in appalling death and suffering. While this would be orgasm-inducing for Americans (they get off on causing suffering because they are sociopaths) it is something the Chinese will try hard to avoid. They won’t give psycho Americans the opportunity to “collateral damage” the mainland civilian population.
To achieve this the Chinese have been setting up the South China Sea to be the battleground. The war will basically be a strictly military-to-military slug-fest. No civilians for the Americans to “accidentally” slaughter. This one strategy moves the advantage to China’s favor, since Americans are really only good at mass civilian casualties to discourage their victims. ”Shock & Awe”, don’t you know.
The kinetic part of the empire’s war on China will thus be almost entirely naval/aircraft battles, most of which will be fought beyond visual range. Nobody will be publishing video of their own ships and planes going down so the public will be in the dark about the details.
Most probable result of this conflict will be more than half of both China’s and the empire’s fleets being destroyed. This will count as an overwhelming victory for China as they have the shipbuilding capacity to quickly recover from their losses. America, on the other hand, will be pushed out of the western Pacific for decades to come.
Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 6 2023 21:06 utc | 53
US is sending weapons througth Bulgaria and Romania from Greece
https://obektivno.bg/sasth-prehvarlyat-v-balgariya-voenno-oborudvane-ot-aleksandrupolis/
Posted by: Paul | Mar 6 2023 21:06 utc | 54
Idiots who think Wagner is the only effective fighting force in the SMO and that Russia's military is incompetent are too dumb to realize that Russia used the Donbass militias, the Rosqvardia, the Volunteer Battalions and Wagner as "stalking horses", to conserve Russian military assets and avoid Russian casualties to the degree possible, while supporting those units from behind with armor, artillery, missiles, drones and air power.
Note that in Bakhmut, according to the article b cites, the description was Wagner and a couple brigades of Russian airborne. “'There’s Wagner and there’s two brigades of airborne assault,' says Oleksandr, an infantryman from Sumy, who is part of a Ukrainian assault battalion in Bakhmut."
Wagner leads the assault, the airborne provide support. This is the way Russia operates. It was a smart move, as I've said before. In war, one must make cold-blooded calculations. Just as Zelensky is sending untrained conscripts to the front while conserving his better forces, so Russia did the same - except the troops they sent weren't untrained conscripts. Which is why Russia is winning.
Once regular Russian forces are fully engaged, they will be up against Ukraine's conserved better forces - and the Russians will destroy them because regardless of the level of fighting ability of the conserved Ukrainian forces, Russian forces are larger, better led, their operational plans better constructed and their equipment is both larger and better.
The Ukrainians are toast. Everything they've done has been a mistake. This is because they're being led by the idiots in the Pentagon and NATO who have no clue how to fight Russia and no actual ability to do so even if they did have a clue.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 6 2023 21:07 utc | 55
Posted by: Sanctions R US | Mar 6 2023 19:42 utc | 32
«I have difficulty imagining what a US war against China would look like. What little has been divulged by US military sources indicates it would be a missile war.»
It is instead very easy: a naval and air blockade. Any PRC ships or airplanes leaving the mainland to be taken out. All PRC coastal ports and airports reduced to rubble (like those in the South China Sea).
Probably also USA funded and armed attacks by Vietnam and India to settle "old scores". The USA would also probably use Thailand and Myanmar (they would outbribe the burmese generals, or provide material support to the opposition) to train and arm "freedom fighters" inside southern China.
In a very risky move they could take out North Korea's nuclear weapons and invade North Korea to threaten the northern PRC, settling another score. Probably also some occasional taiwanese landings in Fujian and Hainan.
Posted by: Blissex | Mar 6 2023 21:07 utc | 56
Ask Michele Flournoy about the "...capability to sink all of China’s military vessels, submarines, and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours..." According to a recent Forbes analysis "...In the end, perhaps a dozen or more American submarines lay wrecked at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, radioactive tombs for as many as 2,000 submariners." Sounds feasible, if not easy. And affordable, doesn't it? I wouldn't bet on this outcome, though.
Posted by: OttoE | Mar 6 2023 21:09 utc | 57
My #59 refers to #32, #35 "I have difficulty imagining what a US war against China would look like."
Posted by: OttoE | Mar 6 2023 21:10 utc | 58
@unimperator | Mar 6 2023 20:48 utc | 47
Southfront has article of 16 year old Ukrainian committing suicide after burying his father and then getting drafted himself. Horrible.Not as bad as seeing the video on Telegram.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 6 2023 21:10 utc | 59
Tragic that life ends either way, but if I were a Ukrainian young male and wanted to go out that way, I would make sure to at least take a few of the local conscription office bastards with me.
The law of scoreboards applies - if I die but take out at least 2 of the assholes who put me in that position, I "win."
Posted by: Chris | Mar 6 2023 21:15 utc | 60
I have difficulty imagining what a US war against China would look like. What little has been divulged by US military sources indicates it would be a missile war. That would only result in a lot of casualties and senseless destruction of property. There would still be almost zero likelihood of a successful troop landing on the Chinese mainland, and maybe 5% chance of a regime change.
China would rebuild quickly, the US not so much.
Posted by: Sanctions R US | Mar 6 2023 19:42 utc | 32
Besides the troup landing (how many US troops would it need to conquer mainland China? And how many tanks, howitzers, ...? Which would get from mainland US to mainland China how?:
1. Moskva. Assuming US attacks would be mainly launched from ships, how difficult could it be to take them out? Google "China Hypersonic Weapons" for an answer. Or Google "Huawei sanctions" and meditate on the question what the Worlds most advanced technology company might do if a large hostile company forced it to stop developing its core products and leaves it idle to develop ... something else.
2. Fishing boats. A while ago, blog posts claimed that China had launched armada of "fishing boats" that did not do any fishing, while the fishermen looked a lot like soldiers out of uniform. If you are the US Navy, you have two options. Sink a large number of "civilian fishing boats" and face the wrath of the world. Or don't sink them and be sunk yourself soon after. Oh, and those fishing boats could appear anywhere in the world, staffed by crews from any nationality. Mercenaries. People with a grudge against America who could be supported with a bit of money and powerful weapons. Is there even a line to cross between national defense and terrorism?
3. On the line between terrorism and national defense: The idea seems popular between US-based warmongerers to export war to other parts of the world and let "allies" do the dying. What makes those people think they are the only ones who could cook up this idea? Remember Al Quaida? 9/11? The Washington Snipers? The Oklahoma City bombing? Or those unfortunate smoking accidents on Russian military installations on Crimea? These were horrible acts of terrorism, sure. But on the scale from zero to the damage a country with practically unlimited resources and the world's most sophisticated armory could do if it decided to take the war - in the form of coordinated terror attacks - could do to America, we haven't seen anything yet.
Which makes you wonder if the people who think they can start another war against another superpower have really thought their plans through to the end. Which, by the way, applies to the war in Ukraine just the same: How long before we see the first "unfortunate smoking accidents" on NATO installations? Until NATO warships have problems with heavy weather?
Posted by: Marvin | Mar 6 2023 21:24 utc | 61
Meanwhile just further north is:
The Stalemate Meatgrinder | Kreminna Front Analysis | Combat Footage Analysis
Weeb Union gives an analysis incorporating data from the past four months: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48W6ut89fYY
This is a good report on yet another high casualty zone.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 6 2023 21:26 utc | 62
A random thought. Zalensky can't win. He's not allowed to stop fighting or negotiate. Is it possible he's decided the only rational course of action is to lose gloriously? If he is seen to throw everything into the struggle, and as a result thousands of soldiers are captured, he can create something like an off ramp. Not one with any leverage, but against the Russians that may not be a lethal failure. The soldiers remain alive, at least.
Posted by: tom paine | Mar 6 2023 21:27 utc | 63
Bakhmut is important because of the lives spent defending it.
As Earnhardt Milch lamented, "the only raw material that cannot be replaced is human blood"
I am weary over U.S. Generals talking about land
Posted by: Christian Chuba | Mar 6 2023 21:35 utc | 64
Zelensky is hanging on because he knows what happened to Ngo Dinh Diem when Diem "failed to meet expectations".
Posted by: Gespenst | Mar 6 2023 21:35 utc | 65
@ tom paine | Mar 6 2023 21:27 utc | 65
hi tom... i will say it again and it has been said many times at moa before.. zelensky has no say over anything.. that is very very clear to me... he is literally a puppet on a string.. when the puppetmasters decide to change the theatre, he will be released from his present role here.. anything that is being decided or created has next to nothing to do with zelensky.. he is like those innocent civilians caught up in bakhmut here... i doubt zelensky has the ability to walk away from any of this either... he is completely at the mercy of those who control the strings.. yes - the strings are largely financial, but it is more then that too... bottom line - he makes next to no decisions and definitely no important decisions on anything!! he is good for the camera and that is about it!!
Posted by: james | Mar 6 2023 21:36 utc | 66
Saracen's head no. 54
Is that a bonafide UK MoD publication?
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Mar 6 2023 21:36 utc | 67
well...Steve Bannon has been interviewed on UK Gb News ...says the USA money to Ukraine will stop...lots of peoples are now much more aware of the failings in their eg medi aid systems etc...government supressing these concerns misleading people ....seemed to give the impression of soonish too...peoples calling for cease funding and seek peace negotiations ..
.should be on line somewhere??
Posted by: Jo | Mar 6 2023 21:36 utc | 68
"Ask Michele Flournoy about the "...capability to sink all of China’s military vessels, submarines, and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours..." According to a recent Forbes analysis "...In the end, perhaps a dozen or more American submarines lay wrecked at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, radioactive tombs for as many as 2,000 submariners." Sounds feasible, if not easy. And affordable, doesn't it? I wouldn't bet on this outcome, though.
Posted by: OttoE | Mar 6 2023 21:09 utc | 59"
LoL thats a dumb analyst.
Does not mention the fact that if Chinese ships are targeted so would American ships including Aircraft Carriers.
When its all said and done. Sure Chinese fleet would be destroyed but so would most of Qmerican fleet including at least 3 carriers. So thats more like tens of thousands of Americans sleeping with the fishies.
Posted by: Comandante | Mar 6 2023 21:39 utc | 69
If the war was a chess game, where would we be? Still in mid-game, with Russia up 5 points in material? With every exchange strengthening Russia's position, but Ukraine playing on for a blunder?
Posted by: Technophobe | Mar 6 2023 21:41 utc | 70
Ukrainian-Russian war. Day 376:
Video footage shows Russian Army raising flag in the Tank monument of Chaplin Square in Bakhmut city (48°35'38.2"N 38°00'56.4"E). There is currently no Ukrainian soldier left in Zabakhmutka district.
source: https://t.me/WeebUnionWar/1760
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 6 2023 21:46 utc | 71
I doubt Putin would have any issues climbing the steps to his airplane. Unlike President Bidet...
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 6 2023 21:49 utc | 72
Weeb union calls incompetence on Russian Commanders in the Vugledar region:
source: https://t.me/WeebUnionWar/1766
If russia wants a chance at winning this war they need to get rid of their incompetent commanders. As I said in my Vuhledar video the commander of the Russian forces in that area was incompetent and needed to be replaced. Historylegends' new video confirms my suspicions. I believe they have similar issues elsewhere as well. Commanders who fail to plan better than at a basic level all while also failing to optimize combat operations. Failing to use counterbattery fire at Ukrainian artillery. Failing to disable Ukrainian drones, and failing to properly support their armored spearhead all played a part in their defeat. The battle of Vuhledar is a defeat for the Russians because of their own incompetence. The Ukrainians just had to sit and take advantage of the Russian mistakes being committed one after another
...and more at the telegram page.
link to History Legends:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3-5kUwVR80
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 6 2023 21:52 utc | 73
Love that blissed-out Hollywood American wet dream version of the empire’s war on China! Doubtless Tony Stark and whatever “bestest ever!” character Brie Larsen is showcasing will beat up those evil chicoms and show them who’s boss!
Back in the real world America’s Seventh and Third fleets would cease to exist as effective forces within days of serious hostilities so there would be no blockade duty for them, but delusional Americans can watch cartoons that tell them it ain’t so.
Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 6 2023 22:02 utc | 75
Posted by: Blissex | Mar 6 2023 21:07 utc | 58
Absurd notions. North Korea alone would cost 50,000 US lives according to Pentagon war games.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 6 2023 21:52 utc | 75
And Weeb Union's competence is in what, again? I agree with Martyanov: these "fan-bois" need to shut the fuck up.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 6 2023 22:11 utc | 76
I have one question. Why exit roads from Bakhmut weren't remotely mined? Supposedly Russians have many platforms able to do it, including dedicated system ISDM Zemledeliye.
Posted by: d | Mar 6 2023 22:17 utc | 77
Is that a bonafide UK MoD publication?
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Mar 6 2023 21:36 utc | 69
Official and stamped !
Posted by: Saracen's Head | Mar 6 2023 22:22 utc | 78
Prigozhin Is the Russian version of Zelensky, They are just better at the game and pick a character more suited for the job.
Z..“If Ukraine stops fighting the EU will be destroyed” “More weapons”
Prigozhin “Need more weapons, if Wagner stops fighting Russia will be destroyed”. Lol
He is making fun of the west/Ukraine for not sending the weapons pledged, he has not gone off on his own to challenge anyone in Russia.
Posted by: OohCanada | Mar 6 2023 22:29 utc | 79
The USA couldn't defeat North Korea in an era when "we" enjoyed massive military supremacy and were fresh off the last big war.
I don't think these neocons really want any shooting wars with China, not directly ever, anyway. The plan is to keep the population scared and willing to fund the massive military behemoth scam machine with more money every year and keep the fat cats sucking on Uncle Scam's teat comfy in their luxury suburban enclaves, send their kids to college, etc. Militarily the US neocons will be happy with a few dozen regional "skirmishes" - always on the near-periphery of the enemy du jour. This is one reason I think China will ultimately come to Russia's aid if asked - because they don't want a huge, destabilized western flank that Uncle Scam and his minions can use to harass them and slowly bleed them via easily manipulated statelets. I'm not saying that they aren't sociopaths, lunatics even, but for the most part this shit about direct war with China is all about the Benjamins.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 6 2023 22:29 utc | 80
So Bakhmut is in a valley and Chasov Yar is on a hill overlooking Bakhmut.
Interesting.
I think it is clear the next target will be Seversk.
Will that be another Wagner job to close the Seversk salient?!?
Posted by: Julian | Mar 6 2023 22:30 utc | 81
leaving an exit was a successful (and Moral) RU strategy in Syria.
don't compare to the US.
Americans are hip on "the exposed white belly of the opponent"
Posted by: MAKK | Mar 6 2023 22:30 utc | 82
Chris @ 50
'Removed' is a nice way to say they have already jumped ship and left Ukraine to enjoy their spoils.
Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 6 2023 22:36 utc | 83
All this "Wagner is demanding more ammunition" talk. Is any of it really believable or is Prigozhin just trolling?
Posted by: Chairman Meow | Mar 6 2023 22:44 utc | 85
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 6 2023 21:46 utc | 73
btw, what flag did they fly at this tank monument? I couldn't recognize.
Posted by: Moses | Mar 6 2023 22:49 utc | 86
@ Uncle Tungsten 33. Imho the indoctrination of Isis was through torture rendition chemical brainwashing, turning humans into monsters to be used as proxies by USUKIS.
In Ukraine the Nazism was created 100 years earlier and lay dormant like Grendel's dam until awoken with rage by Nuland and Cameron in Maidan like a hypnotist clicks their fingers. This re-awakening of primeval evil , to me just looks Gothic and weird. BBC news tonight Radio 4 tries to make out that Russia is the malevolent lurking force. Unbelievable tripe .
It's early days in Ukraine. It took years for the Torture rendition chemical psychopathising of Islam to become recognised in Syria. Maybe when Zelensky and the Azov nutters are defeated the truth will come out about how this rabid dog of racist hate was unleashed from the past.
Posted by: Giyane | Mar 6 2023 22:51 utc | 87
@ Chairman Meow 87
Not trolling, deceiving the enemy that he has no ammunition, surely.
Posted by: Giyane | Mar 6 2023 22:55 utc | 88
So Bakhmut is in a valley and Chasov Yar is on a hill overlooking Bakhmut.
Posted by: Julian | Mar 6 2023 22:30 utc | 83
---
Here is a proper Soviet era (1980) topographic map from the US Defense Mapping Agency. It extends as far East as Artemovsk.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqaC2JIXoAAww2V?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
Posted by: too scents | Mar 6 2023 23:00 utc | 89
Hello Jacq @27. You have given me the first really good laugh of the day!! I think you're spot on there! I will now have a permanent image in my head of Biden's 'Aides' as continence management tools!!
Posted by: Jo Dominich | Mar 6 2023 23:08 utc | 90
Posted by: Sanctions R US | Mar 6 2023 19:42 utc | 32
«I have difficulty imagining what a US war against China would look like. What little has been divulged by US military sources indicates it would be a missile war.»
«It is instead very easy: a naval and air blockade.»
Anyhow I doubt that any war with the PRC will be overt like that, and if it is it won't likely begin before the RF is turned into a USA vassal state. That's the real meaning of the USA-sponsored Poroshenko's war against the Donbas, standard "domino theory": use Ukraine to destabilize and then flip the RF, and then use DoD and CIA bases on the PRC border to surround and isolate the PRC and destabilize it.
The USA is sort-of playing "go", and has been playing it slowly and patiently at least since they defeated and dismembered what remained of the spanish empire.
Posted by: Blissex | Mar 6 2023 23:14 utc | 91
Putin on verge of death has re-entered the news cycle:
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/vladimir-putin-cryogenic-oxygen-tank
Posted by: jayc | Mar 6 2023 20:30 utc | 42
Oh no more Putin is sick garbage.
I go into a Hyper Baric chamber. It gets rid of joint pain and makes you feel good and strong afterwards. I know a lady in her 80s who uses Hyperbaric therapy regularly. She is pretty spry and sharp for an old Gal. She works part time as a receptionist in a Doctors office.
Putin is just using hyperbaric therapy to stay healthy, strong and live a good long life.
Posted by: Golddiggr | Mar 6 2023 23:16 utc | 92
Zelensky has posted a video claiming that the whole AFU general staff is in agreement that Bakhmut should be held and reinforced. I believe him- if he was lying it would be easy for the specific generals he named to call him out.
Now let's put aside the idea that holding Bakhmut is a purely political decision, the hohols think it makes military sense to hold it even now. What are the possible reasons? I can think of only these:
1. Nafofags are correct that the K/D favors Ukraine. (Unlikely)
2. The entire AFU general staff is stupid. (Unlikely)
3. UA wants to buy time for their counteroffensive army to organize, and losing Bakhmut would causes a collapse in the front which would ruin their plans.
4. UA knows the war is lost but think they can get more favorable terms by holding every inch, despite heavy losses, to make RU think the war is a stalemate.
5. UA believes that NATO support will either dwindle or fail to materialize if Bakhmut is lost.
Anything else?
Posted by: catdog | Mar 6 2023 23:04 utc | 289
Posted by: catdog | Mar 6 2023 23:19 utc | 93
@58 Blissex, the US Navy would best order more lifeboats. I don't know how many of Russia's hypersonic jets and missiles are in China or how far along China's gotten in this area, but trying to create a blockade with China by sinking ships will be met with sinking US ships.
By the time Biden tries to start a war with China he'll be out of office and no one who wants to run for anything will be starting a war in the US.
Posted by: Bob In Portland, Ore | Mar 6 2023 23:19 utc | 94
All this "Wagner is demanding more ammunition" talk. Is any of it really believable or is Prigozhin just trolling?
Posted by: Chairman Meow | Mar 6 2023 22:44 utc | 87
Bakhmut is the biggest battle of the 21st century so far, and it's been going for months. Wagner having fewer shells than they'd ideally want does not seem unlikely.
Posted by: catdog | Mar 6 2023 23:22 utc | 95
The fascinating subtext behind b's account, relating the complaints of soldiers reported by the Kyiv Independent, is the question of what's going on with the Kyiv Independent -- which I'm accustomed to interpreting as a NAZO propaganda outfit. "Independent" in their name is your sure-fire tell, your information-age tip-off: they're not.
We can rest assured most of what they tell us is false, but there might remain some clues to objective reality in their choice of these lies, in particular. Something like trying to piece together shredded remnants of negative, mirror-image text. Assuming some discernible reality remains, once the onion is peeled.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 6 2023 23:24 utc | 96
@ 89
Come to think of it, both zionist schemes / scams started 100 years ago, the repudiation if Islam by the collapse of the Caliphate and British creation of jihadist irrational fascism, and the repudiation of Christianity by focusing on its ties with Paganism in Europe. The Book of Kells might be beautiful but it's sure as hell nothing to do with the Bible. Sigh.
Posted by: Giyane | Mar 6 2023 23:27 utc | 97
Just a heads up from what I am seeing on Ukie Twitter - the are hopping mad about the 'Ukrainian' 'POW' 'being executed' 'by Russians'.
I'm looking around for the fact check, but if anyone knows where I can find it, that would be very helpful to me. (I don't read Russian)
Posted by: LGB! | Mar 6 2023 23:27 utc | 98
Another possibility for Zelensky announcing that he's holding Bakhmut is that it is now IMPOSSIBLE to withdraw the UA troops. He thinks that announcing he is holding the city will confuse the fact that he waited too long to withdrawal and now it's too late.
Posted by: catdog | Mar 6 2023 23:28 utc | 99
@catdog - you’re overthinking it.
Bakhmut has already been lost. The coke head is just rile playing here; better to deny reality than accept it.
Posted by: Chris | Mar 6 2023 23:28 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
You have to ask yourself why Zelensky is being ordered to do this. Pure evil.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 6 2023 18:09 utc | 1