Russian special military operation in Ukraine #41

Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation (3 April 2023)

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.

In Kupyansk direction, aviation and artillery of the Zapad Group of Forces inflicted a fire damage on the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) close to Sinkovka (Kharkov region), and Artyomovka (Lugansk People's Republic).

Up to 75 Ukrainian troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, and one D-30 howitzer were destroyed.

In Krasny Liman direction, the ground-attack aircraft, artillery and units of the Tsentr Group of Forces have inflicted a fire damage on enemy manpower and military hardware close to Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk People's Republic).

Up to 50 Ukrainian troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, one pick-up truck, and one D-30 howitzer were destroyed.

In Donetsk direction, the Yug Group of Forces and artillery have eliminated up to 285 Ukrainian troops, one tank, three infantry fighting vehicles, one armoured fighting vehicle, eight motor vehicles, two pick-up trucks, one Grad MLRS vehicle, four D-30 howitzers, and two ammunition depots.

In South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, aviation and artillery of the Vostok Group of Forces inflicted a fire damage on the AFU units close to Ugledar and Novomikhailovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy's losses in this direction during the day amounted to 45 Ukrainian troops, two pickup trucks, one D-30 howitzer, and one Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery system.

In Kherson direction, up to 10 Ukrainian troops, two motor vehicles, and one Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer have been destroyed over the past 24 hours.

Operational-Tactical Aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Group of Forces have engaged 79 AFU artillery units at their fire positions, manpower, and military hardware in 98 areas during the day.

Air defence forces have intercepted 10 HIMARS and Smerch MLRS projectiles during the day.

Moreover, seven Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down close to Aleksandrovka (Donetsk People's Republic), and Naugolnoye and Staraya Krasnyanka (Lugansk People's Republic).

In total, 405 airplanes and 228 helicopters, 3,648 unmanned aerial vehicles, 415 air defence missile systems, 8,521 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,078 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 4,494 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 9,287 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

#MoD
@mod_russia_en

Situation in the #Donetsk Direction until 18:00 on 3 Apr 2023

In the #Donetsk Direction, the AFU is reinforcing their positions. New batches of ammunition have been transferred to the frontline, and limited amounts of fuel have been issued due to disruptions in the supply of fuel and lubricants. At the same time, reinforcements from other parts of the front are expected to move to the line of contact.

In the #Avdeyevka Sector, units of the AFU's 59th Motorized Infantry Brigade are preparing for an offensive north of Avdeyevka against Russian positions near #Krasnogorovka.

Ukrainian formations have been issued with dry rations for several days and refuelling of equipment has been organized. A couple of days ago, the AFU had already attempted to retake the lost territories, but the RF Armed Forces successfully repulsed the attack.

In #Maryinka, fierce position fighting continues. Soldiers of the RF Armed Forces are storming Ukrainian strongholds in the city centre near the church on Druzhba Avenue and on the northern outskirts behind the reservoir. For the time being, the AFU are holding their ground by setting up firing points in houses.

In #Marinka, reinforcements of the AFU arrived to rotate the personnel of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces' 79th Airborne Assault Brigade. And four tanks from the outskirts of #Kurakhovo were moved to #Maksimilyanovka .

Members of the Ukrainian formations talk about power outages in their occupied DPR territory due to the Russian strike on the #Kurakhovo TPP.

In the #Ugledar Section near Novy Komar, an unidentified unit is being trained by US instructors to conduct small group assault operations.

In #Dnepropetrovsk Region, the training of the 23rd Mechanized Brigade of the AFU is coming to an end at a training range near #Novomoskovsk. Upon completion of the training, the personnel of the 23rd Brigade will be redeployed to the #Donetsk direction in one of the areas.

In addition, a battery of M109A6 Paladin self-propelled artillery units (eight SAU units and around 120 men) is scheduled to be deployed to the #Donetsk direction from 8 April. The A6 modifications are equipped with improved armour protection and an automated fire control system.

The Ukrainian Authorities are currently planning to significantly reinforce the grouping of troops in the #Donetsk direction. Given certain successes of the Russian army in #Maryinka and near #Avdeyevka, it is highly likely that the AFU will try to launch a counterattack somewhere near these suburbs of #Donetsk.

The general design of the AFU spring-summer campaign implies an offensive with a broad front in one or two directions, with several stalling in other areas, starting from #Kherson and ending in the #Kharkov region. This will make it possible to identify the least defended positions of the RF Armed Forces and strike there to break through the front.

As we said earlier, in addition to #Zaporozhye, we should also expect attacks in other sections of the front. The plans to engage only the 23rd Mechanized Brigade in the #Donetsk direction indirectly point to preparations for this near #Donetsk.


https://t.me/sitreports/6693

There was a photo of a destroyed tank, likely from artillery, that looked very much like the Black Eagle prototype quite early on in the war

What advantages does an extended chassis length offer? I'm not sure if the interior of the Black Eagle is similar to the T-90 series, or is more closer to the Armata

I think it would be a good idea for Russia to introduce a lite version of the T-14, or a tank that is between the T-90M and T-14 like a Black Eagle M type where its more capable than the T-90M but is not a big liability or loss if destroyed or captured by the enemy.

Post Backman Today at 5:40 am
Is is disappointing to see even the alternative media so off the mark with this assassination story.
The Duran says that the US has been trying to reign in the SBU and they disapprove of these kinds of attacks. This is complete bullshit. These attacks are planned from beginning to end by the CIA itself.

Not that I would like to defend Duran, as I don't share the worship some of you obviously have toward him, but in this case I agree.

SBU is doing what it was doing for the last 9 years.
The whole structure was heavily reconstructed after 2014. More and more radical nazi elements were implemented, and just take a look at the revealed materials of it's officers and employees. Some of them are clear nazi. The others are clear Ukro false history chauvinists.
They are terror organisation masquerading as a government power structure.
A year ago, they were given a carte blanche.
What is the problem here, is the fact that they are doing their daily routine handicapped by the western media, while it is not the westerners wh are the judges.
It is the population of 6+ bln people living on this planet other than "westerners", who know what terrorism is by their own experience.
And this is what the Muricans are afraid, and that is why they are trying to hold the leash stronger.
They won't succeed anyway, but I can believe they try.

Up to now it does not appear that Ukraine is running out of troops.

The fact that they have withdrawn troops from the border with Belarus suggests they are desperately short of troops... the appearance of old men on the battlefield has the same effect too... they are sending cannon fodder to the front line in the hopes of delaying the Russian forces.

They are eviscerating their own population so Boeing and Lockheed can make a good profit... and Eastern Europe can be purged of its old cold war Soviet collection of shit so over the next few decades they will have to by Western shit that is hundreds of times more expensive to buy and more expensive to store because it is fragile crap.

Russians were forced out of many areas in Ukraine. That is something we know for certain.

When they were operating with perhaps 80K combat troops (and the same again support troops) against the entire army of Ukraine... they took an enormous bite of the territory to tie down those Orc forces while they destroyed ammo and fuel and vehicles, and then when that was done they retreated to lines they had the numbers to defend... then they took on 300K new troops and trained them and are now ready for who knows what.

What we know for certain is that Kiev plans for a big offensive and when that is destroyed they will claim it is because they don't have sufficient air power and if you westerners want us to defeat the Russians then we need F-16s and Eurofighters and Rafales... and of course even if they decided to send them they wont have time to train to use them before the damage done to their army with that stupid offensive leads to a military collapse and massive rout.

Or maybe they will make it to Sevastopol and Putin ends up having to nuke them... either way, not good for Kiev.

That is the "best" thing about it, to launch an invasion in such an incompetent way to transform the Ukrainians into so-called "heroes" they are really not.

According to western media they have always been heroes... even when shelling their own citizens for the crime of wanting to continue to speak Russian.

Most western people don't believe western news...

For some people (caveat emperor and a few others) , these sketchy characters and spinsters like Tatarsky are their biggest heroes. The honest upstanding truth tellers.

It is not new... during the Cold War the western litmus test to work out if something was true about the Soviet Union or Eastern block... if it was positive then it was propaganda and if it was negative then it was true... so their tanks were awful with inaccurate guns with autoloaders that removed limbs that they couldn't solve... the logic being that it might have happened once but if it happened once it might happen a lot, to it happens all the time and they just don't care.

Of course the problem with this blogger is that the doom and gloom was likely to appeal to westerners to expand his audience...

Character assassinations are very easy. Especially, if the person is dead. Can you back up any of the claims about Tatarsky's corruption?

I am not calling him a dick for being dead, and I called him Kievs boy when he was alive, inciting panic amongst Russians is not something I approve of, because it only helps the enemy... Russias military problems are not going to be solved on the internet.

Not changing my view of him because some harpy managed to blow him up is just me being consistent.

Funny, based on his bullshit members here were happy to call members of the Russian military incompetent and stupid and even corrupt, but we can't suggest this guy is a little bit dodgy?

Whatever.

As for Martyanov, he is a know it all kind of expert  and lately likes to talk about stuff he don't understand much (especially connected to  economy and finance). He likes to brag about his "connections" with active Russian army officers, while making unsubstantiated claims.

Sounds like the guy who just died... so which one is OK now?

It s will it be real?

The Black Eagle was never built or properly tested... a driving mockup was driven around the place, but AFAIK it was never a functional vehicle and it was 125mm calibre only.

After fighting in Chechnia it was decided that loose ammo in the crew compartment was simply too dangerous so T-72s and T-80s and T-90s only went into combat with ammo in their underfloor autoloaders. So 22 rounds for the T-72/90 and 28 rounds for the T-80, but the T-64/80 autoloader is different and has the projectiles at the bottom and the propellent stubs sitting up vertically above them presenting a much larger target from the side but also exposed without the armoured covers the T-72 and T-90 autoloader provided. This meant any penetration of the turret would shower sparks and hot material on the cardboard propellent stubs designed to be fully combustible... any penetration of the turret led to problems so one solution was the Black Eagle design.

The Black Eagle design took the autoloader out from under the feet of the turret crew and put it in an enlarged turret bustle that could hold 31 rounds. This ammo didn't need to be rotated, just straight ram loaded so it probably would have operated faster than the underfloor autoloader and allowed longer penetrators to be used, but it was rejected, as was a similar variant of the T-72 that added the same turret bustle autoloader with 31 rounds to the existing underfloor autoloader.

Both were rejected because the turret bustle is too exposed and vulnerable to enemy fire and would be an easy way to take out the tank.

No actual vehicles were made that were actually operational, so I don't see how they could promise to send them to Ukraine.

It sounds like wishful thinking, or a suggestion that existing types in theatre wont be enough to handle western types being sent there... both of which are wrong.

No money, and perhaps they felt they could fix it with redesigned/reformulated ammo.

Oh **** off... they have upgraded the T-72, the T-80, the T-90, they have introduced the Sprut light tank and are currently getting ready to put the T-14 and the B-14 and the K-14 into operational service but they have no money to save their tank crews from suffocation... stop being a pussy.

If they need new ammo then it would just be too expensive and not worth a single ruble being spent because the cost of replacing all their tank ammo with new stuff would be more than they likely spent developing Armata.

There is no type of ammo that wont make smoke.

Propellent combusts and smoke is what combustion makes.

So, just give the crew breathing equipment or open the hatch...as we have seen. If all the problems were fixed immediately, why did they bother with the T-55, 64 and 72. Why not just go straight to the T-90M. Every tank has issues going into production. Masks may allow you to operate, but they degrade the efficiency of the crew. and with more detailed and complex displays, clear view of the displays becomes more important. If it wasn't a real problem, why did they address it at all? Nothing better to do at the office?

The T-14 crew will likely be wearing masks because the Ratnik III equipment set includes goggles that have headup displays and I would think similar equipment for tank crews and helicopter crews can't be far away either.

Watch the video again you would struggle to get smoke in your face in the crew positions before it dissipates. It is a problem you are making up... it is all in your head.

That's the definition of trolling.

Yeah... if it doesn't get fixed yesterday it is Putins fault so he has to go...  

But bringing out some prototypes and trialing them could make sense for Russia. If so then its a shame they didn't get to try out the Black Eagle properly

It increased the headroom in the turret crew compartment by about 25 cms, and the turret bustle autoloader would enable long rod penetrators to be used easily, and interestingly the autoloader was supposed to be able to be lifted out in one piece and rather than loading rounds into the tank hatches one at a time, a crane would remove the empty autoloader and replace it with a full autoloader ready to go. The autoloader was completely separate from the turret crew compartment except for a very thick hatch that allowed rounds to be poked through directly into the gun breach.

The T-72 model kept the underfloor autoloader, so you could have long rod penetrators in the turret bustle and HE and HEAT rounds in the underfloor autoloader under armour plate protection. 22 rounds underfloor and 31 rounds in the turret bustle... all ready to fire... I thought sounded pretty good...

But they decided turret bustles were too vulnerable to enemy fire... even old obsolete RPG-18s could penetrate the turret bustle and set off the ammo... which would quickly burn out of control and burn for a very long time raising the temperature of the metal on the tank to levels that would melt the metal and force the crew to abandon it...

What advantages does an extended chassis length offer? I'm not sure if the interior of the Black Eagle is similar to the T-90 series, or is more closer to the Armata

The Black Eagle was a modification of the T-80, the hull extension was intended to improve frontal hull armour by extending the nose and increasing the angle of the armour to increase the amount of armour an incoming round would have to penetrate.

I think it would be a good idea for Russia to introduce a lite version of the T-14, or a tank that is between the T-90M and T-14 like a Black Eagle M type where its more capable than the T-90M but is not a big liability or loss if destroyed or captured by the enemy.

They have T-72s, T-90s, and they are not using T-14s, but they also have 2S25s and eventually will have K-14s and B-14s too... which is Boomerang and Kurganets with T-14 turrets on them.

Why do you think they need another type of tank?

T-72s in robotic mode would be interesting and relatively expendable.

Then you post a vid where one of the T90M specialists talks about how they have dealt with the problem. Now you are still saying there was no problem even though in the video the Russian T90 guru is showing the how the new variant greatly reduces he smoke.

The new vehicle might also greatly improves the accuracy of the gun but does that mean all previous tanks are junk and should be scrapped?

The accuracy of the previous tanks seems to be sufficient to get the job done. An improvement that reduces the amount of smoke in the crew compartment would undoubtedly be appreciated but hardly something to waste this much time about.

That's how the Anglo Satanist empire works. Most terrorism you see in the world is planned by them.

Fortunately the west sees Putins caution and careful behaviour as being a weakness, so when he puts things right they will be upset and not understand how Russia could do such a think to peace loving democratic people like them...

And this is what the Muricans are afraid, and that is why they are trying to hold the leash stronger.
They won't succeed anyway, but I can believe they try.

I think the Americans see the Ukrainians as being Russians and that this war is the best thing that could happen because despite what they say in public, as far as they are concerned this is Russians killing Russians, so they will support the separatist factions until they separate and then they will drop them and look for another chunk of Russia or China to separate from the block trying to weaken and divide.

They were hoping to strip off Ukraine and they exploited their resources for 8 years before they got Putin to bite... it took nazis and bio weapons labs and even talk of nuclear weapons to get him to bite but they finally got the ingredients together for it to happen... problem was everyone was supposed to be behind them like they essentially were against Saddam when he invaded Kuwaite and Russia was supposed to be isolated and impoverished and would have to come crawling to the US for an out... except it didn't work with Iraq and it is actually damaging the west more than Russia with Russia.

A bit longer and the US dollar is going to collapse along with their banks.... and then things will be interesting.

Sad as it sounds this conflict was needed to polarise the west against Russia to polarise Russians against the west and realise Russia has no future with the west just like the rest of the second and third world have no future because they will never get access to the first world... the devil never shares power or wealth...

According to that last graphic they produce vehicles negatively. I wonder how they do that ? Are they using quantic tools and make quantic cars that vanish before they exist ?