Russian special military operation in Ukraine #53

Russia estimates recent Ukrainian troop losses

Kiev lost 23,000 troops and 3,000 pieces of military equipment last month, Moscow’s defense minister has said

Ukraine lost more than 23,000 troops in January, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said, claiming that Kiev had to deploy reserves to prevent a frontline collapse. In December, the minister revealed estimates that Ukrainian casualties since the start of the conflict with Russia in February 2022 had reached 383,000.

Speaking to top Russian military commanders on Friday, Shoigu stated that after the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive – which began in early June but fizzled out in the autumn without any substantial gains – Moscow’s forces now “hold the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact.”

According to the minister, Russian troops have also been advancing and improving their positions, capturing several settlements in the regions of Donetsk and Kharkov.

Faced with these substantial losses, and “to prevent the collapse of the defense, the Ukrainian leadership is throwing its remaining reserves into battle and hastily carrying out the next waves of forced mobilization,” the minister said.

Shoigu also said Moscow continues to launch high-precision strikes on Ukrainian military infrastructure, including production and repair facilities, airfields, field depots, and bases housing Kiev’s troops and foreign mercenaries.

Ukraine announced a general mobilization shortly after the start of the conflict, although the draft campaign has been marred by corruption and draft dodging. Officials in Kiev have been mulling a new mobilization bill to replenish battlefield losses since December, but it has yet to be passed.




Russia lost 600 troops in the entire period of January

23,000 vs 600

And you are talking about stalemate?

Notice that Shoigu mentions "operational initiative"

What it means, is that Russia holds advantages in every category at the operational level

So much so that it allows for some tactical actions along the frontline

But this does not mean that the shift to offensive operations has begun,

I want to reiterate, guys we have not yet seen the army begin the offense

Arkanghelsk wrote:Russia estimates recent Ukrainian troop losses

Kiev lost 23,000 troops and 3,000 pieces of military equipment last month, Moscow’s defense minister has said

Ukraine lost more than 23,000 troops in January, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said, claiming that Kiev had to deploy reserves to prevent a frontline collapse. In December, the minister revealed estimates that Ukrainian casualties since the start of the conflict with Russia in February 2022 had reached 383,000.

Speaking to top Russian military commanders on Friday, Shoigu stated that after the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive – which began in early June but fizzled out in the autumn without any substantial gains – Moscow’s forces now “hold the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact.”

According to the minister, Russian troops have also been advancing and improving their positions, capturing several settlements in the regions of Donetsk and Kharkov.

Faced with these substantial losses, and “to prevent the collapse of the defense, the Ukrainian leadership is throwing its remaining reserves into battle and hastily carrying out the next waves of forced mobilization,” the minister said.

Shoigu also said Moscow continues to launch high-precision strikes on Ukrainian military infrastructure, including production and repair facilities, airfields, field depots, and bases housing Kiev’s troops and foreign mercenaries.

Ukraine announced a general mobilization shortly after the start of the conflict, although the draft campaign has been marred by corruption and draft dodging. Officials in Kiev have been mulling a new mobilization bill to replenish battlefield losses since December, but it has yet to be passed.




Russia lost 600 troops in the entire period of January

23,000 vs 600

And you are talking about stalemate?

Notice that Shoigu mentions "operational initiative"

What it means, is that Russia holds advantages in every category at the operational level

So much so that it allows for some tactical actions along the frontline

But this does not mean that the shift to offensive operations has begun,

I want to reiterate, guys we have not yet seen the army begin the offense

38.3: 1 wow!! THat is approaching a turkey shoot.

Arkanghelsk wrote:

mnztr wrote:

With the evolution of drone tech, Crimea and Belgrod will never be out of range as long as there is a Ukraine. Drones will only become more capable. , you can easily have a sea drone that launches a flying drone. A flying drone that land and uses track get to its target ...etc etc,

The general staff and Putin disagree with you

He has already announced the creation of the DMZ

You really believe there is a stalemate? Mobile defense operations with the odd DRG raid do not constitute an offensive posture or operations

The Russian army is in a defensive posture throughout the frontline - meaning 0 offensive moves have been attempted

The capture of these villages and towns, and the assault of Avdeevka, or position warfare around Bakhmut and Sinkovka/Kupyansk, and even the storming of Rabotino are not at all offensive operations

This is where Arrow, Mnztr,  and most observers confuse things and are not versed in operational level warfare and buy into the western narrative of a "stalemate"

Offensive operations are more similar to Gostomel raids, operations at Kharkov, and the crossing of the Dnieper at Kherson into Krivoy Rog

These raids are perfectly available to be conducted- actually when we observe Gostomel note that Russia conducted it with less than 200,000 men throughout Ukraine

The achievements were the encirclement of Kharkov and Kiev and Nikolayev

Right now the Russian army has over 500,000 troops around the same area, or more than double the numbers since 24/02/22

Do you understand what Putin is saying when he mentions a DMZ?

He is referring to the resumption of large scale offensive and maneuver war

You can dig your head in the sand, but as Naryshkin and Putin already stated

The fate of Ukraine will be very sad... you can choose whatever you want to believe

For example Budanov claims that the Russian offensive will fizzle out in spring

If this is what they believe, then I am inclined to believe what Naryshkin is saying

I didn't say anything about offensives, just that drones will be able to reach any distance as long as there is a state of war and Ukraine exists. Buffer zone will be useful to prevent attacks by heavy weapons, but drones will get heavier. It won't be long before you will be able to send a swarm of 10 drones that can each deliver a blow equal to a 152mm round.

mnztr wrote:

I didn't say anything about offensives, just that drones will be able to reach any distance as long as there is a state of war and Ukraine exists. Buffer zone will be useful to prevent attacks by heavy weapons, but drones will get heavier. It won't be long before you will be able to send a swarm of 10 drones that can each deliver a blow equal to a 152mm round.

The process is quite predictable

After several new regions are captured, a referendum will be held and they will be adjoined to Russia

PVO air defenses will move forward creating an expansion of the IADS

Ground forces will also be positioned along a new contact line, with new defensive fortifications and engineering obstacles created

SMERSH units will filter out the rear areas of the Russian army, and look for sabotage, terror cells, and other such units

Once it is cleared of saboteurs, construction companies can begin works to restore those areas

After that , Putin will give Kiev another chance to save itself from further losses of territory - maybe for another year

If Ukraine continues to persist in strikes, then Russia will just keep going

The main goal is to push back launch positions of HIMARS, GLSDB, Storm Shadow, Scalp, Patriot, and other such weapon systems

At those ranges none of those weapons will be able to reach Belgorod, Donbass, Bryansk and so on

I am Inclined to think that the main direction of the offensive will be to drive onto the northern Ukrainian territories

I don't think the Russian army will cross the Dnieper at this time, as the main goal is to prevent further shelling of civilian areas, and prevent western SAMS from shooting down aircraft over Russian territory

Boris Rozhin and Colonel Cassad drops this bomb:

BREAKTHROUGH ON ALL FRONTS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

When the General Staff have been discussing with President Vladimir Putin the timing of the Russian offensive to force the Kiev regime into capitulation, it has been agreed, understood, and repeated that the strategic reserves of the Ukrainian forces should be destroyed first, together with the supply lines for the weapons and ammunition crossing the border from the US and the NATO allies.

This process, they also agreed, should take as long as required with least casualties on the Russian side, as determined by military intelligence. Also agreed and pre-conditional, there should be no repeat of the political intelligence failures of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) which precipitated the failed special forces operation known as the Battle of Antonov (Hostomel) Airport from February 24 to April 2, 2022.  

Taking account of the mistakes made then by the SVR director, Sergei Naryshkin, and the subsequent mistakes of military officers around Yevgeny Prigozhin, the General Staff has also accepted that their tactical operations must run least risk of Russian casualties through March 17, the final day of the presidential election.

“the Russian breakthrough is beginning to happen now. It’s being coordinated with strikes and raids along the northern border. The commitment of the ‘crack’ Ukrainian brigades at the expense of other sectors shows how desperate [General Valery] Zaluzhny is to plug the holes. He knows that the target is the isolation of Kharkov, the establishment of a demilitarized ‘buffer zone’, as well as the development of a situation whereby all Ukrainian forces east of the Dnieper are threatened with being cut off… and he’s quickly running out of ammunition, not to mention cannon fodder.”

“By the end of the winter,” the source has added overnight, “the Ukrainians will barely be able to move along the roads they use to feed the front due to the Russian drone, missile, conventional air, and artillery strikes. Once they can no longer plug the gaps with mechanized units acting as fire-fighting brigades, it’s just a matter of time before the big breakthroughs and encirclements begin. At the current burn rate of Ukrainian forces, I imagine we’ll start seeing Russian tanks with fuel tanks fitted for extended range appearing and Russian airborne troops making air assaults in the Ukrainian rear within weeks.”

In yesterday’s edition of the Moscow security analysis platform Vzglyad, Yevgeny Krutikov, a leading Russian military analyst with GRU service himself and GRU sources for his reporting since, published a report entitled “What does the offensive of Russian troops in the Kharkov region mean?” “Russia is creating a new strategic situation in the Kharkov region,” Krutikov concluded,    “threatening to dismember the Ukrainian defence up to the Donetsk agglomeration.” A verbatim English translation of this piece follows.

“The settlement of Tabayevka in the Kharkov region has been liberated,” the Russian Defense Ministry says. We are not just facing the capture of a village: Russian troops are now hacking into the contact lines, which have not budged for a year. Russia is creating a new strategic situation in the Kharkov region, threatening to dismember the Ukrainian defence up to the Donetsk agglomeration.

First, Krakhmalnoye, then Tabayevka – Russian troops have advanced in the Svatovo direction (Kharkov region), pushing the enemy to a new line of defence (to the village of Peschanoye). Slightly to the north, already close to Kupyansk, the enemy’s positions are also gradually moving to the west and southwest.

Along the way, forests are being cleared, which the VSU [Ukrainian Armed Forces] is turning into fortified areas, even giving them names (“Alligator” and “Woodpecker”). The enemy is losing the old lines of trenches, the first line of contact has been destroyed. Something similar is happening directly near Kupyansk, but there the advanced fortified lines in Sinkovka are being held still by the VSU, though the positions on the flanks have gradually begun to sink.

At first glance, we are looking at isolated episodes of positional warfare, since the big, iconic and recognizable geographical names do not appear in the information releases.  But this is not quite true.

Firstly, even in this scenario as published so far,  strategic threats arise for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, for example, in the possible drive of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to the Oskol River which has far-reaching prospects. Notwithstanding, it is still impossible to predict when this will become possible in practice.

Secondly, the enemy has been demonstrating a systemic defence crisis in the Kupyansk direction during the past week. The defence of Kupyansk has been under construction by the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the spring of last year, when the decision was made in Kiev on a ‘counteroffensive’ in the southern direction. New brigades with western armoured vehicles were sent to the southern section of the contact line, and Kupyansk and the area around it were designated for defence with the rest of their forces.

In Kiev, they were convinced that Russian troops were forming an offensive group in the Kupyansk direction, and so the VSU began to wait there for a frontal assault. However, as a result, the Russian Army did not undertake anything of the kind in this area. Instead, the Ukrainian units were gradually ground down by the Russian army in positional battles, while the Kupyansk group of the VSU had to be replenished with whatever troops were left.

Now Ukrainian sources are complaining  that as a consequence, a combination of lines has formed in the sinkhole areas (that’s the same Krakhmalnoye and Tabayevka). Into these lines the VSU has herded separate battalions from different units, with the result that unified management and command have been lost, and the performance quality of the troops has left much to be desired.

As a result, the VSU is considering the possibility of transferring the remnants of those forces which participated in the failed ‘counteroffensive”’ to Kupyansk from the southern direction. Before that, they had been sent in great haste sent to Avdeyevka.

But this is already a systemic problem for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since there is trouble in the southern sector. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have gradually regained some of the positions which were left during the so-called counteroffensive, and these forces continue to move forward. We are even talking about possible threats to Orekhov, a rearguard city for the VSU, from which all the communications and command of the ‘counteroffensive’ had been carried out.

Behind the defensive fortifications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an open field for tens of kilometres opens up on a whole group of sites. Kiev’s military reserves are gradually being squandered, and there is practically no human materiel left to plug the holes. Related to these problems there are the panic campaigns in Kiev about total mobilization.

There is another problem: the attrition of officers. Western military personnel cannot replace this crucial resource —  they can only be used to service technically complicated weapons systems such as air defence or long-range artillery. Along the line of contact, foreign officers are more likely to interfere due to their ignorance of the language and misunderstanding of the mentality of the [Ukrainian] subordinates.

There are other factors weakening the Ukrainian defence, but they are not directly related to military operations. For example, the Western sponsors are really concerned about the corruption of the Ukrainian leadership. The inspections and audits which are taking place in Kiev on this issue right now are preventing Ukraine from building new defensive lines swiftly enough.

Another non-military factor: political discord among the various factions of the Ukrainian authorities. The premonition of defeat is triggering a drop in morale, not only in the troops, but also in the elites.

All this in general creates a strategic opportunity for Russia to seriously change the situation on the line of contact.

Partial tactical successes must at some point turn into a major breakthrough in the enemy’s defence. Moreover, we are talking about such a breakthrough that will not stop in just two or three days at the next defensive line, but will lead inevitably, precisely,  to the collapse of the front. This is exactly what the efforts of the Russian Armed Forces are now aimed at, probing for the weaknesses in Ukrainian defensive positions.

The liberation of Tabayevka is an example of just such an approach. Sooner or later, the VSU will not have time to create a new defensive line behind a particular settlement. And then we will see how the special operation will break the current positional deadlock.

Arkanghelsk wrote:

mnztr wrote:

I didn't say anything about offensives, just that drones will be able to reach any distance as long as there is a state of war and Ukraine exists. Buffer zone will be useful to prevent attacks by heavy weapons, but drones will get heavier. It won't be long before you will be able to send a swarm of 10 drones that can each deliver a blow equal to a 152mm round.

The process is quite predictable

After several new regions are captured, a referendum will be held and they will be adjoined to Russia

PVO air defenses will move forward creating an expansion of the IADS

Ground forces will also be positioned along a new contact line, with new defensive fortifications and engineering obstacles created

SMERSH units will filter out the rear areas of the Russian army, and look for sabotage, terror cells, and other such units

Once it is cleared of saboteurs, construction companies can begin works to restore those areas

After that , Putin will give Kiev another chance to save itself from further losses of territory - maybe for another year

If Ukraine continues to persist in strikes, then Russia will just keep going

The main goal is to push back launch positions of HIMARS, GLSDB, Storm Shadow,  Scalp, Patriot, and other such weapon systems

At those ranges none of those weapons will be able to reach Belgorod, Donbass, Bryansk and so on

I am Inclined to think that the main direction of the offensive will be to drive onto the northern Ukrainian territories

I don't think the Russian army will cross the Dnieper at this time, as the main goal is to prevent further shelling of civilian areas, and prevent western SAMS from shooting down aircraft over Russian territory

I think you miss the pattern of escalation. The US will send kits for Tomahawk like missiles eventually and they will be "made in Ukraine" that is coming as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. So Russia needs to terminate this war and drive Ukraine to captulation ASAP. I don't get why they cannot just focus on stopping petroleum. Even if you get to 90% success the AFU will be massively weakened.

Seems like many survived the ship attack. At least a good news.

Those ships should be equiped with Active Protection System like a big afghanit to shot explosives at those naval drones to make them explode away of the ship.

The ak-630 with a good thermal optical guidance would ve great too.

They essentially gave reason why. They are waiting for elections as a sanction of the people to finish the war.

mnztr wrote:

I think you miss the pattern of escalation. The US will send kits for Tomahawk like missiles eventually and they will be "made in Ukraine" that is coming as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. So Russia needs to terminate this war and drive Ukraine to captulation ASAP. I don't get why they cannot just focus on stopping petroleum. Even if you get to 90% success the AFU will be massively weakened.

Quite hard but doable. First hit the big reserve and then the pumps in eastern ukraine.

The military will be reloaded by trucks but the civilians will be impacted a lot.

Second valuable target is electricity production. A bit radical but powerful.

Last would be trains. According to wiki they have 1600 electrical loco and 300 diesel. Destroy the diesel ones and with electricity prod destroyed the 1600 others will be useless.

Geran 2 is enough to destroy any of those targets.

I didn't expect WSJ audience in the comment section to be so coherent and realistic, good on them:

Yes the new Russian territories will be exposed to missiles and rockets, but it is the consequence of living close to the border

The DMZ will expand gradually all the way to the Polish and Romanian borders.

The US will send kits for Tomahawk like missiles eventually

So what?
See point above.
If NATO dares it can launch "ukrainian" cruise missiles from Poland or Romania. Or Finland.

They are waiting for elections as a sanction of the people to finish the war.

I don´t know. The elections are such a big event. Possible that the Russians use it as a distraction
and the big thing starts a few days earlier.

Isos wrote:

mnztr wrote:

I think you miss the pattern of escalation. The US will send kits for Tomahawk like missiles eventually and they will be "made in Ukraine" that is coming as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. So Russia needs to terminate this war and drive Ukraine to captulation ASAP. I don't get why they cannot just focus on stopping petroleum. Even if you get to 90% success the AFU will be massively weakened.

Quite hard but doable. First hit the big reserve and then the pumps in eastern ukraine.

The military will be reloaded by trucks but the civilians will be impacted a lot.

Second valuable target is electricity production. A bit radical but powerful.

Last would be trains. According to wiki they have 1600 electrical loco and 300 diesel. Destroy the diesel ones and with electricity prod destroyed the 1600 others will be useless.

Geran 2 is enough to destroy any of those targets.

But they even allowed the refinaaries to start. How hard is it to dedicate one Geran every 2 weeks to each refinary.

Hole wrote:

Yes the new Russian territories will be exposed to missiles and rockets, but it is the consequence of living close to the border

The DMZ will expand gradually all the way to the Polish and Romanian borders.

The US will send kits for Tomahawk like missiles eventually

So what?
See point above.
If NATO dares it can launch "ukrainian" cruise missiles from Poland or Romania. Or Finland.

They are waiting for elections as a sanction of the people to finish the war.

I don´t know. The elections are such a big event. Possible that the Russians use it as a distraction
and the big thing starts a few days earlier.

Launching missiles from NATO nations will result in masssive retaliation. Maybe Putin is waiting for the US election as well. So he can shit on Bidens campaign

mnztr wrote:

Launching missiles from NATO nations will result in masssive retaliation. Maybe Putin is waiting for  the US election as well. So he can shit on Bidens campaign

Offensive operations cause casualties

Casualties cause public discontent

Public discontent can be harnessed without the support of oligarchs

Arkady Volozh for example was cut out of the Yandex sale

Oleg Tinkov renounced his citizenship and ran to the UK where they lifted sanctions on him

There are disgruntled oligarchs who can cause serious harm - see Prigozhin

So Putin can't afford these issues right now, everything must be carefully resolved so that when offensive operations begin, the economy can resist the west stealing those 300 billion euros and dollars which the oligarchs parked in Europe and US

The good thing is, once this money is stolen, the west will lose the oligarchs forever

They will flood into Russia with their grotesque billions, and invest into the domestic economy

In exchange, Putin will give them low tax rates, and hand over the shares of nationalized western business for them to gain profits, and reinvest them into the economy

The final touches are being worked on



The Novo Ogaryovo meeting went well, and most of the oligarchs are happy with the arrangements they made with Putin

They will remain the economic managers of Russia, but they will invest in the country and help raise it higher

It seems the dachas have been captured

Ukrainians are forced to retreat from the northern part of the reservoir



Avdeevka. Start.
Dill, like a sentence - special forces are already in the city

Short front-line report on February 2, 2024 from journalist Marat Khairullin

Dear friends, today is a significant day, or rather it was yesterday - February 1 can officially be called the beginning of urban fighting. Yesterday and today, fighters of the 114th and 30th brigades of the Russian Armed Forces bypassed the Avdeevsky Quarry (Blue Lakes) position on both sides and officially entered the city limits of Avdeevka from the north along Zheleznodorozhny Lane and Frunze Street. And now they are gaining a foothold in the area of ​​Sapronov Street.
Special operations forces of the 115th brigade of the Russian Guard also entered the city. And, according to unofficial data, active traffic continues towards Donetskaya Street during these hours. If the dynamics continue, then by tomorrow morning we can expect our guys to consolidate at this most important milestone

It also seems now from the south, guys are pushing on the air defense zone, cheburashka, and Spartak

Lot of movement in Avdeevka

JohninMK wrote:Iskander strike

More likely, Tornado-S

mnztr wrote:

38.3: 1 wow!! THat is approaching a turkey shoot.

Shoigu addressed combined KIA/WIA number, so don't get to excited.
It is still only 10+:1

BTW, in our shitstream there is a "great story" emerging, how Poseidon "just flew there" and "a corvette sunk".
Me thinks we are witnessing one more case when they have used P-8 for targeting/retranslation for those drones, just as they have tried a while ago in Syria with flying ones.
Maybe the time is ripe enough to have some accidental collision of P-8 with some drone of unknown origin.

It seems Russia already had captured 4 project 1241 ships from Ukraine when they captured Crimea

These ships are old, but it just shows that despite losing Ivanovets, Russia has at least 2 Ukrainian ships of this class serving in the border guard , while 2 others are hulked as some kind of barracks

Anyway these old ships need to be replaced by karakurt

Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation (for the period from January 27 to February 3, 2024)

In the period from January 27 to February 3 of this year, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out 37 group strikes with precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles on decision-making centers, objects of the military-industrial complex, military airfield infrastructure, arsenals and fuel bases of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the locations of units of the armed forces of Ukraine, formations of nationalists and foreign mercenaries were affected. All assigned objects are hit.

In the Kupyansk direction, units of the Western Group of Troops liberated the settlement of Tabayevka in the Kharkiv region and continued to improve the situation along the front edge in some areas. During the week, Russian troops repelled 41 attacks by assault groups of the 30th, 32nd, 44th, 60th mechanized, 57th motorized Infantry, 25th Airborne, 95th airborne assault brigades and 103rd Air Defense Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Sinkovka, Tabayevka, Kharkiv regions, Novoselovskoye of the Luhansk People's Republic and Terny of the Donetsk People's Republic. The enemy's losses amounted to over 750 military personnel, a tank, nine armored combat vehicles, 21 vehicles, as well as eight field artillery guns.

In the Krasnolimansk direction, units of the Center group of forces, with the support of aviation and artillery fire, occupied more advantageous positions and repelled 19 enemy attacks. Clusters of manpower and equipment of the 60th, 63rd mechanized brigades, the 12th special purpose Brigade and the 13th brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Kirovsk, Yampolovka of the Donetsk People's Republic, Chervonaya Dibrova, Kuzmino of the Luhansk People's Republic, as well as the Serebryansk forestry. The enemy lost up to 1,825 soldiers killed and wounded, six tanks, 13 armored combat vehicles, 36 vehicles and six field artillery guns.

In the Donetsk direction, units of the Southern Group of Troops competently improved the situation along the front edge and repelled 22 enemy attacks. Air strikes, artillery fire and heavy flamethrower systems defeated the formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Verkhnekamenskoye, Artemovskoye, Krasnoe, Kleshcheyevka, Kurdyumovka, Andreevka, Belogorovka, Perezdnoye and Georgievka of the Donetsk People's Republic. The losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the specified period amounted to more than 2,245 servicemen, five tanks, 19 armored combat vehicles, 63 vehicles, 28 field artillery guns and two MLRS Grad combat vehicles.

In the South Donetsk direction, units of the Vostok group of forces jointly repelled nine attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, in the areas of the settlements of Novomikhailovka, Konstantinovka, Ugledar, Staromayorskoye, Makarovka of the Donetsk People's Republic and Priyutnoye of the Zaporozhye region, units of the 58th, 72nd mechanized, 79th airborne assault brigades, as well as the 127th and 128th air defense brigades were defeated. The enemy's losses amounted to up to 735 soldiers, two tanks, six armored combat vehicles, 17 vehicles, 12 field artillery guns and two MLRS Grad combat vehicles.

In the Zaporozhye direction, units of Russian troops repelled an attack by an assault group of the 108th Air Defense Brigade in the area of the settlement of Lugovskoye and defeated the manpower and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Workino, Nesteryanka, Pyatikhatki, Kamenskoye, Malaya Tokmachka and Orekhov of the Zaporozhye region. The enemy lost more than 385 servicemen, a tank, 10 armored combat vehicles, 19 vehicles, 15 field artillery guns and a Grad MLRS combat vehicle.

In the Kherson direction, as a result of preemptive actions by Russian troops, air strikes and artillery fire, the manpower and equipment of the 35th, 36th, 38th Marine brigades, 121st, 123rd and 124th air defense brigades were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Nikolaevka, Tyaginka, Ivanovka, Tokarevka, Antonovka, Yantarnoye, Kherson region. The enemy lost up to 290 soldiers killed and wounded, four tanks, two armored combat vehicles, 26 vehicles, 11 boats and 12 field artillery guns. During the week, 26 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered.

Over the past week, seven launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems, including five S-300, SAMP-T made in France, as well as IRIS-T made in Germany, were hit by operational and tactical aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of groups of troops. In addition, three radar stations of the Norwegian-made NASAMS anti-aircraft missile system, two radars of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, one radar station of the IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile system manufactured by Germany, as well as six ammunition depots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were hit.

Aviation and air defense systems shot down 20 aircraft guided missiles during the week, including four HARM anti-radar missiles, a JDAM guided aerial bomb, 53 HIMARS, Uragan and Alder multiple launch rocket systems, as well as 423 unmanned aerial vehicles.

In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 568 aircraft, 265 helicopters, 11,678 unmanned aerial vehicles, 462 anti-aircraft missile systems, 14,893 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,215 multiple rocket launchers, 7,952 field artillery and mortar guns, as well as 18,179 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed.

https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12498856@egNews

Moscow should immediately send Russian air defence systems to defend Iraqi soil!

^

Was thinking the same . Iran or Russia providing AD to Iraq and Syria and Yemen . The attack recently by the Yanks , not sure about it's nature . Important to see if truly the attack was by long range bombers , and if stand off cruise missiles were fired , from international airspace , say over Med Sea . Or glide bombs JDAM was released by jets , while over Iraq or Syria airspace . My guess is that it was cruise missile attack by long range bombers , while over Eastern Med Sea , international airspace . The reason is the small size of explosions ( cruise missile only a 500 kg warhead ) and number of confirmed attacks and TV reports ! Then again a night time attack , means Jets  overhead using laser guided  ? Advance Iranian or Russian AD , will reduce number of attacks , by forcing long distance attacks using expensive and sparse cruise missile platforms ?

It has a crew of 40.

Western Ukraine should be partitioned between Hungary, Romania & Poland.

Kiko wrote:Western Ukraine should be partitioned between Hungary, Romania & Poland.

Maybe Hungary for their decently nice relationship with Russia, but surely not poland or romania deserve anything from it.