re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Sometimes, Russian Telegram channels are difficult to understand when translated to English. I don't know what is meant here by "Balka Grusheva," as I can't find any town anywhere near there with a similar name.

If I understand this Rybar Telegram post correctly, Ukraine attacked in several directions on the Russian left flank along the Velyka Novosilka axis. Although Rybar wants to present the result as positive as Russia and so stressed that some of the attacks were repulsed, it seems clear that Ukraine made significant progress.

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Vremievsky site
situation as of 19.00 July 13, 2023

Today, assault groups of the 36th Marine Corps, with the support of artillery from the 72nd Ombre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, tried to break through the defenses of the RF Armed Forces north of Priyutnoye, moving along the forest belts. At the same time, a group of the 31st brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine delivered a chilling blow south of Balka Grusheva.

At the same time, the consolidated assault groups of the 35th infantry regiment and the 128th brigade of the territorial defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, under the cover of a 60-mm M224 mortar battery, wanted to gain a foothold at the landing west of Staromayorsky and reach the outskirts of the village.

The enemy advances were repelled by coordinated actions of Russian infantry, artillery and aviation. Ukrainian formations suffered losses and retreated. The wounded were evacuated from the area north of Grusheva.

! The situation in the Vremyevsky section remains tense. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, at the cost of heavy losses in manpower, were able to break through the Grushevaya Balka and are now trying to attack the Priyutnoye-Staromayorskoye line.

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I follow this thread as a long-time lurker. Big picture, it seems quite clear that Ukraine's allies will continue supplying advanced weaponry indefinitely, and that Russia will continue to dig their heels in. Seems like a battle of attrition for years to come is most likely.

According to Putin, Ukraine is doomed, now that they have largely switched from Soviet-made to Western equipment:

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“Foreign tanks burn better than Soviet-made vehicles, and Ukrainian military personnel often refuse to use foreign equipment, as it becomes a priority for the Russian Armed Forces.”

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LINK

Think 155mm tube launched munitions from what was reported.

EDIT:

I believe it was the:

M483A1 & M864 155mm shells (DPICM)

The USA should stay out of this retarded conflict!

I loved engineers. They used to call us DATs and we used to call them Stupid arse Picket Pounding Engineer Retards. All in good fun.

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Are these main trench lines the last line of defense for the Russians?

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No. In this area, along the Orikhiv-Tokmak axis, the Russians had three lines of these well-prepared defenses.

We're talking about layers of mines and dragon's teeth, backed by a well-dug (and often covered) trench.

This axis is the most direct and obvious line of Ukrainian attack; it's where everyone expected Ukraine to attack, and that's why the Russians built three of these lines. Ukraine has now reached and occupied parts of the first line.

Further to the east, on the Velyka Novosilka axis (which the Russians call the Vremivsky Ridge axis), there's only one such main Russian fortified line, and Ukraine is still about 5 miles away from it.

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I loved engineers. They used to call us DATs and we used to call them Stupid arse Picket Pounding Engineer Retards. All in good fun.

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I mean if the shoes fit...

My only issue with the maneuver units was their lack of understanding of how to use Engineers. When I had my Engineer company when I was in the reserves we did a summer training at NTC. I rolled up to the 3 shop to work out what they wanted in terms of counter mobility and fighting positions. The major rolled out his topo and showed me exactly where they wanted 2,200 meters of triple standard concertina. He had some quote from a non-Engineer FM that said 60ft should take 5 soldiers 15 minutes to deploy. I had to explain that was crown control fencing that was just bouncing our three rolls of wire and stacking them, no pickets and no ties. I finally got the S-3 to understand even if we built it that where it was at was useless as it wasn't tied into natural terrain features. After explaining that I had multiple heavy equipment operators that also did it for a living in the civilian world "he decided" it was best if we just built him some world-class tank fighting positions. If we had tried to build that TSC fence my boys might still be pounding pickets.

If I was king for the day in the Army one thing I would do is extend ever combat arm branch's OBC (officer basic course) by a few days or a week and have that week concentrate on the abilities and reasonable expectations you can have for all the other branches. It would also include classes on how to speak the language of the different branches.

Lastly, there is not much a 12B hates more than pounding pickets they hate it almost as much as 11Xs hate dining fighting positions in root-infested ground.

I did make a lot of friends with the grunts as an Engineer, understanding their plight as a former 11A, during combined arms exercises I would send my support platoon around with their SEEs (Unimog with a blade and backhoe) to dig fighting positions for the infantry units. There is no better feeling as a grunt than getting to fold and stow your e-tool.

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about the failed counteroffensive:

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where does this rank compared to the failed dash to kiev?