re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

The mere mention of America makes guest on Soloyov's evening show faint in fear.

YT clip

British Defence Intelligence
INTELLIGENCE UPDATE
UPDATE ON UKRAINE 22 March 2023

Over recent days Ukrainian forces initiated a local counterattack to the west of the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut, which is likely to relieve pressure on the threatened H-32 supply route. Fighting continues around the town centre and the Ukrainian defence remains at risk from envelopment from the north and south.

However, there is a realistic possibility that the Russian assault on the town is losing the limited momentum it had obtained, partially because some Russian MoD units have been reallocated to other sectors.

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!

In seeing all of the old T-62 tanks that Russia has been putting on the battlefield, a number of people have wondered if Russia might get so desperate as to use T-54/T-55s, which were first manufactured in 1948.

Well, now you can wonder no longer. Here's the video of them on a train in Eastern Russia, heading west.

This is the tank that the Soviet Union used in Hungary to put down the 1956 revolution.





Here's the original report:

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The filmed train has recently departed from the town of Arsenyev, Primorsky region, where the 1295th Central Tank Repair and Storage Base is located. We had already documented shipments of military vehicles from that base: for example, in October, in Yekaterinburg, a train carrying T-62M(V) tanks was captured on video, and the point of departure of the train was also Arsenyev. Note that deployment and use of T-62 tanks by the Russian Armed Forces during the current invasion has been documented since the summer of 2022, but it is the first recorded instance of T-54/55 tanks withdrawal from storage.

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It's possible, of course, that these tanks could be used for something other than fighting in Ukraine (maybe some elementary training of Russian tankers). We'll have to see if they actually end up on the battlefield.

Yes, it's true that Ukraine is already using a variant of the T-55, but this is instead a very deeply upgraded and modernized tank, not much resembling the original.

There has to be some equipment left over from the Tzar’s army in storage somewhere. The Russians are apparently pathological hoarders.

It will be interesting to see if they show up on the battlefield or if they send them elsewhere to free up more modern tanks to send to the front.

T55s can probably be breached by a .50 cal sniper rifle, much less som variants of the more common infantry weapons.

If they try to do anything outside of use the T55s as a dig in mobile gun to stabilize their front lines, we are going to see a mass slaughter of these antiques.


This does then bring the question of if they are brining T55s out of mothballs, even as a contingency, do they have to enough armor to withstand any form of Major counter attack by Ukraine? As it is, the newest tanks severely out class whatever generation of tanks RU has on the field. If they are resorting to T55s, do they even have enough “modern” tanks to even withstand a counter offensive by the current Ukrainian armor?

I am seeing some speculation on pro-Russian accounts that this is less about a tank shortage and more about the lack of artillery shells. One account pointed out that Russia hasn't touched whatever stocks of 100mm ammo that they have, and there are locations where the T-55s could be used in indirect-fire mode as a poor-man's SPG.

We know that Russia did this for a while with their T-72s, until they wore out too many barrels and probably started to run low on 125mm ammo. But unlike the T-72s, these ancient tanks have little value "as tanks," so they can simply be viewed as disposable.

Hmm. This article says that the T-55 would have a 14.7 km range with indirect fire.

If I remember correctly, in order to use a tank as indirect fire, you have to use some sort of device on the breech to calculate the elevation of the gun tube.

You would then get ordered to have your gun tube at a specific elevation that was calculated by the Master Gunner to be able to hit the intended targets.

A lot of variables and opportunities for human error which obviously make it less than ideal.

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I followed the account but sort of found it odd he could post on Twitter so much from the front etc.

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So the accusations are that his videos are staged? That's high production value.

ETA: Or he's shooting video well behind where the fighting is taking place and never really hanging by the front?

I guess potentially. More what I saw was that it appears he was there, but not as a contracted soldier and potentially not actually fighting. The current ruckus is that he was there grifting, albeit seemingly very riskily by being so close with the front. Seems like he was essentially acting as a front lines media member, in a sense, but passing off as though he was legitimately a contracted member of a branch of UA.