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Lieutenant Colonel Roman Venevitin, former commander of the Russian 72nd Separate Motor Rifle Brigade that got wrecked near Klishchiivka and Andriivka, calls the brigade losses 'very serious', while calling it betrayal to sent soldiers to the front untrained and unprovided.

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It is reported that Colonel Andrey "Dunai" Kondrashkin, commander of the Russian 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade, has died fighting in Ukraine.

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Ukraine destroys the air defense shield over Crimea

Today's destruction of the S-400 in Yevpatoriya, Crimea with kamikaze UAVs & Neptune cruise missiles was already the second such successful operation in recent days.

On August 23, Russian S-400 air defence system & 48Ya6-K1 Podlet-K1 low-altitude surveillance radar used with S-400 AD system were destroyed in Olenivka, Crimea.

Podlet-K1 radar provided control of the air situation over the western part of the Black Sea to Russian forces.

The destruction of the S-400 air defense system on August 23 made a kind of "hole" in the air defense of Crimea.

This allowed Ukraine to target Sevastopol with British Storm Shadow cruise missiles fired from Su-24s.

Russian Navy’s Ropucha-class landing ship Minsk & Kilo-class Rostov-on-Don (B-237) submarine are now beyond repair after these strikes.

This is a difficult, methodical, long, but successful operation conducted by Ukrainian forces.

And it'll surely continue with the Russian forces not knowing how to respond to these strikes.

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❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Combined attack by the Ukrainian armed forces in the Black Sea

On the morning of September 14, Ukrainian formations carried out another attack on the Crimean peninsula.

First, 11 UAV were launched from the vicinity of Odessa (for the first time in a long time not "Mugins" were used for this purpose).

The drones were shot down by the 31st Air Force and Air Defense Division around 5.30 a.m. over Yevpatoria.

Around 5.50 a.m the AFU hit the vicinity of Uyutnoye with an "Neptun" anti-ship missile R-360, as a result a S-300 SAM launcher was hit (relevant footage already appeared on the Net)

❗Once again the AFU uses the same tactics as a few weeks ago. After the UAV raid, the positions of the S-300 air defense system were determined, and the Neptun was used almost immediately. First, the AFU waited until the ammunition was exhausted, and then hit the SAMs.

🔻 Over the past two days, the Ukrainian armed forces also attacked several times a detachment of warships of the Black Sea Fleet consisting of the Vasily Bykov and Sergey Kotov.

• In total, 12 uncrewed boats were observed, six yesterday and six more today.

• On 13 September three drones were hit by small arms from ships.

• Three more were hit by naval aviation helicopters from the Kacha airfield and the patrol ship Vasily Bykov.

• This morning, five were destroyed on the approach to the OPK, and one managed to get close to the "Bykov" and hook the board (the degree of damage is not critical).

🔻 As we said yesterday, the lack of response to the increasingly aggressive actions of the collective West by the hands of Ukraine is fraught with great consequences.

The strikes will be repeated in the coming days, and herbivorous responses are not the solution.

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“Granit, cease fire!”

Russian artillery heavily pounded its own forces in July 2023 for two hours.

EW was suppressing the communication all this time.

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🇷🇺🇺🇦 Soledar direction: the AFU advances near Andriivka, situation as of 14.00 on September 9, 2023

🔻Southwest of Bakhmut, Ukrainian formations continue to make their way to the railroad track: after passing to the northeastern outskirts of Kleshcheyevka, the AFU struck near Andriivka.

As a result of fierce fighting, enemy units were able to drive the Russian army fighters out of the village. According to some reports, the RF Armed Forces' line of control runs along the railway line.

This is indirectly confirmed by the activity of Ukrainian reconnaissance groups north of Kurdyumovka. Units on armored vehicles are moving north of the Russian fortification, which could not be the case in case of the presence of the RF Armed Forces in Andriivka.

🔻 There are also clashes in Kleshcheyevka. Russian Armed Forces units hold the northeastern outskirts and are trying to counterattack. The distance to the railway track is about 400 meters.

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"The head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk, told about how the Kerch Bridge bombing was prepared on October 8, 2022.

According to him, the explosives were hidden in rolls of film, its total capacity was 21 tons of TNT equivalent.

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At the same time, all the Russians transporting the explosives, as well as the truck driver who died at the time of the explosion, were used "in the dark".

"We have gone through seven circles of hell, used so many people in the dark! The Russians "closed" 22 people - imprisoned them. They incriminate all of them for complicity in a terrorist act. Although in fact they were engaged in their usual routine business. They were just ordinary Russian smugglers".

Photo of preparation of rolls with explosives: SBU"

Combined troop deaths and injuries among Russian and Ukrainian forces in Ukraine is approaching 500,000.

Russian casualties approaching 300,000, including as many as 120,000 deaths.

Ukrainian deaths at close to 70,000 & wounded between 100-120,000.

Paywalled source

Everyone knows that infantry is at the forefront of every battle, but today we decided to show you the forces overseeing their progress from above – Ukraine’s army aviation. Meet the two legendary helicopters that form it’s very backbone.

An apparently leaked memo attributed to former Russian minister Dmitri Rogozin reports major shortcomings in the Russian army's equipment, including artillery far inferior to Western equivalents, a shortage of 152 mm shells, inadequate communications and obsolete UAVs.

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The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel has published 4 pages of a memo signed in Rogozin's name and addressed to Anton Vaino, the head of the Russian Presidential Administration. It tackles "problematic issues of organisation and management of combat operations" in the war in Ukraine.

Rogozin served as deputy prime minister in charge of the defence industry from 2011 to 2018, then as head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos until being fired in July 2022. He has since been trying to make himself relevant again, which is likely the context for the memo.

Rogozin declared himself the head of the "Tsar's Wolves" inspection group of volunteers, with the stated aim of testing and supplying weapons for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Assuming the memo is genuine, it likely reflects his discussions with those involved in procurement.

He writes that he has been in "consultations with a number of military commanders in the zone of the Special Military Operation (SMO) general designers of weapons and military equipment as well as on the basis of the experience I have acquired over the past nine months".

These discussions have led him to identify "4 key issues, on the solution of which the success of the Special Military Operation (SMO) largely depends."

1/ The first category is "Organisation and conduct of counter-battery warfare", in which he says that Russian counter-battery radars cannot detect long-range Western-supplied artillery and Russian artillery batteries don't have the range to fire back. Specifically:

a) Obsolete artillery reconnaissance means of the Zoopark radar, ACP, AZK in terms of range do not correspond to the technical characteristics of the enemy's artillery systems: M777, "Paladin", "Krab", and all the more so "MLRS", "MARS";

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b) the absence of counter-battery firepower from the combined barrel artillery at the firing range of Western artillery systems. The use of only long-range 152 mm shells (of which there is an acute shortage). Often the use of BM-21 and Uragan missiles, the accuracy of which is negligible; Consideration is currently being given to the establishment of separate teams in each regiment (brigade) using [DJI] Matrice 300 quadrocopters ..."

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[Here there is apparently a missing page covering issue 2.]

3/ On the next extant page, the author discusses problems with radio communications systems, focusing on the new but problematic Azart system that the Russian military introduced in the 2010s and the lack of other modern communications equipment.

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He writes that there is "[a lack of?] stability, secrecy and promptness of the transfer of official information, and under certain conditions, a complete loss of communication." Specifically, he notes of the Azart:

(a) ... The technical specifications do not correspond to the declared data, there is no base radio station, retransmission is possible only through the same radio station, arranged as a repeater. So, in a brigade (regiment), to create the smallest system of communication in defence, you need to put at least 20 radios as repeaters. Communication in the PPRCh mode [frequency-hopping spread spectrum] with armoured vehicles is impossible due to the absence of this mode on standard weapons stations;

b) Tanks, self-propelled artillery and armoured vehicles are equipped with communications equipment of the last generation, operating in the open mode and exposed to the effects of electronic warfare. In order to organise stable communications, additional vehicle radios of the "Hitera", "Motorola", "Kombat", "Kirosan" types are installed, which only partially solve the problem of command and control;

c) The arrival of diverse means of radio communication for the troops has led to re-sorting and lack of compatibility, [it is impossible to] organise interaction in combat, both in the connection (unit) and with neighbours. Even though the Azart radios are inadequate, the troops do not have enough of them;

d) Space (satellite) communication facilities are necessary up to and including battalion level, as well as in reconnaissance, artillery and air defence units;

e) The supply of Arakhis-2, Argon and Granit communications equipment, which have already proved to be highly effective, is carried out in minimal quantities. There are no company or battalion sets of radios in this inventory, especially for armoured vehicles. These types of radios are more often most commonly used by special operations and reconnaissance units."

4/ In the next section, the author discusses "Reconnaissance organisation issues", by which he means aerial reconnaissance using UAVs. He highlights critical problems with the capabilities and quantities of Russia's UAVs:

a) ... At the tactical and operational level, the main means of obtaining firing coordinates of troops and enemy facilities at a depth of 3 to 60 kilometres are UAVs of various types.

b) The types of UAVs adopted into service before the beginning of the Special Military Operation (SMO) are outdated and ineffective, and their video and photo equipment does not provide the required resolution and image clarity. These are such types as Orlan-10, Granat, Tachyon, and Aileron. These UAVs are not immune from enemy electronic warfare, and because of this, there are large losses in the course of their use. The previously used devices of the "Kometa" type have not been finalised.

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The new models - more jamming-proof and with better optical equipment, such as "Zala", "Supercam" (the cost of one device is about 25 million rubles [$264,000]) and others, cannot yet cover the need of the troops during the course of the SMO.

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Among other things, the issue of training specialists for these types of UAVs has not been fully resolved.

"While we are still getting ready for the use of the Supercam in the zone of the SMO in cooperation with the manufacturer's representatives, the Zala requires a trip to the territory of the Russian Federation for a period of up to 3 weeks.

"In regular UAV units, 10-30% of the total number of aircraft are available (taking into account combat losses). Every aircraft is accounted for.

"Despite improvements in the quality of UAV optics and technical parameters of the complexes, the issues of countering the enemy's electronic defence systems have not been resolved.

"There is no proper feedback from the Russian Ministry of Defence to industry and leading state design bureaus.

"Nevertheless, the issues of organizing direct dialogue between the troops and industry, including private engineering companies, are solvable and require only will and organization of efforts." /end

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"Russian “Vostok” Battalion commander Alexander Khodakovsky suggested that Russia freeze the war in Ukraine along the current frontlines, reintroducing a narrative that had been largely dormant since Wagner financier Prigozhin’s armed rebellion.

Khodakovsky's unit is defending in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border area & his comments about freezing the war follow the liberation of Urozhaine, suggesting recent UKR advances may be significantly weakening confidence in the RU defense along the wider front in southern Ukraine.

Khodakovsky has previously highlighted concerns about the Russian defense in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area, specifically relating to poor Russian counterbattery capabilities, heavy Russian losses, exhausted Russian forces, and a lack of reserves.

Khodakovsky called for an operational pause on August 13 so that Russian forces could accumulate resources for a new operation.

Khodakovsky’s escalation from calling for an operational pause to suggesting that Russia freeze the conflict is likely associated with his firsthand experience of recent tactically significant Ukrainian advances and the degradation of defending Russian forces in Urozhaine".

A S-300 Battery hit by HIMARS

The history of this unit defending its homeland spans more than a century. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, they faced the enemy on the hottest frontiers: in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and near Bakhmut. The brigade has been commended by Volodymyr Zelenskyy at least half a dozen times, and President Biden quoted one of its soldiers in his speech. Now, they continue to liberate their homeland. This is the story of the 128th separate mountain assault brigade.

Genuinely interesting. This morning the Russian MoD claimed they destroyed 3 naval drones that tried to attack two of their Black Sea Fleet patrol ships (Sergey Kotov and Vasily Bykov). There were stories a container ship (Sparta-IV, reportedly carrying weapons coming from Syria) was also among the vessels that were attacked.

Russian sailors after the attack reportedly asked for evacuation. In intercepted conversations between the crews of Ka-29 helicopters (involved in the evacuation) and coastal aviation services, coordinates of the vessels are transmitted and the number of casualties were specified. There is being talked about one dead and five wounded while also talking about the need for border guards for 'custom clearance'. What is ment with the latter is unknown but it is likely related to the cargo.

It seems a lot more damage has been done than Russia (like usual) is willing to admit.

Wagner PMC mercenary Denis Kuzmin was headed home to Omsk across Russia but stopped in Moscow and hired prostitutes in a banya (sauna). After he passed out, the prostitutes stole 790,000 rubles ($8,500) in cash, his entire salary for serving in Ukraine for 6 months.

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