I post over at https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk what I think is a fairly even handed way but am regarded by some there as their Russian troll. You probably couldn't find a more insular, believe the propaganda site. But there are posters there who clearly know what they are talking about. This is a post from one of them.
What do you think of his comment?
JiMK wrote:
“Apologies for the delay but I’ve only just re-found the link to the Ukrainian pontoon being struck.”
farouk wrote
“Velen dank”
I responded to your post where you stated and I quote:
“”The alternate view is that Ukrainian forces, when hunkered down in built up areas are very difficult to defeat, but when they are out in the open they are far more exposed. Time will tell if it is a trap and they have been lured out of relative safety. The Ukrainians did install a couple of pontoon bridges, fixed just below the surface of the river as a kind of natural camouflage, but one has been bombed.””
I’ve been keeping very close tabs on what is happening across the Ukraine simply because I am most interested in the tactics used (you can blame B. H. Liddell Hart and his book Strategy where I was introduced to Belisarius, a truly amazing general whose achievements via the use of out flanking the other I feel should be made compulsory reading for all military officers)
(EDIT Flavius Belisarius was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. He was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean territory belonging to the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century prior.)
So the battle in the east.
Moscow after a hard drawn bunfight took the town of Izium in April resulting in opposing forces holding either side of the Siverskyi Donets River. Using that river as a holding shield Moscow has advanced south east towards Lyman which will then put them in a position to threaten Sloviansk and Kramatorsk which if you look on the map is what Moscow needs to capture in which to remove the Ukrainian salient into their recent captures in Donetsk Oblast. The problem is the wooded areas favours the Ukrainians and Moscow is having an extremely hard time in advancing , which after a month and a half has cost them dearly . Whilst Moscow has concentrated its BTGs in that direction, the Ukrainians have taken to the offensive around Kharkiv and pushed back Russian forces to the Russian border.
But this is where it becomes most interesting. Remember I said that both sides are separated by the Siverskyi Donets River well the Ukrainians opened another front at the town of Protopopivka and built a bridge across it, the video you showed was the destruction of one such bridge on the 4th of May. But the fact remains the Ukrainians are taking the battle to the Russians and in the wooded areas on the other side of the river from Protopopivka to Yampil NASA’s FIRMS fire map, shows that Ukrainian artillery is taking a very heavy toll on the invading Russian forces which can be verified by the numerous videos across the net showing a lot of Russian forces on their knees getting painfully battered around the ring.
Don’t get me wrong, Moscow has brought a lot of firepower to the game, the problem is, they are losing men and equipment on a rate not seen since France capitulated to the Germans in 1940. Now in 1989, the USSR pulled out of Afghanistan after losing 14K men over 10 years (120 months) resulting in pressure across the USSR to end the war and bring their boys home.
Well Moscow is only 3 months into its foray into the Ukraine and the lowest estimates show they have lost around 15K troops, its still the honeymoon period , but when the Russian public start to wake up to the fact that they have lost so many of their fathers, brothers and sons then expect outrage. We are already seeing some of that with how Moscow is clamping down on people objecting to this war. Thousands arrested , we are seeing signs of sabotage, we are seeing young men leaving Russia than serve and as I said it is still early days.
Back to the destruction of that pontoon bridge , I cut and pasted in the post you replied to that Moscow on the retreat had destroyed 3 bridges in which to stop the Ukrainians crossing water lines of demarcation , the Ukrainians in turn built a bridge in which to continue their advance , which was taken out by Moscow and you tried to paint that as a brilliant tactical move , whilst omitting from the narrative that the Russians are retreating in that neck of the woods and the Ukrainians are advancing
Anyway we are now 3 months down the line, lets come back in 1 months time and see where were are. Oh don’t get me wrong Moscow has the means in which to capture the entire region, the problem is, they are going about doing so in the most expensive way (men, equipment, moral) going, and as I hinted the real battle for Putin has yet to be fought and that battle will see him face off the families of the soldiers he has had killed.
Everybody thinks Glasnost was a rude awaking for Russia, well what Putin has in store is going to be even worse.
Oh and BTW, I started life as a Sapper, I’ve built many a Bridge be they:
MGB single or double span
With Pontoon
HGOB
Bailey Bridge
Air portable bridge
I was also a Combat Support boat operator , designed to replace the Mark 7 Tug regards to building bridges on the rivers of Germany, so I think I know a little something about Military bridges, such as they are designed to be put up quickly (as in hours) usually at night which explains why in that video you linked in, there are no troops to be seen, now contrast that with the images of the destroyed Russian bridges.
As I keep saying about the Russians : All the gear, no idea.
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were noticed.
received over 200 vehicles of this type from the Poles.
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Briefing by Russian Defence Ministry
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine.
High-precision air-based missiles of the Russian Aerospace Forces have hit 4 command posts, 34 areas of concentration of Ukrainian manpower and military equipment, as well as 2 ammunition depots near Novhorod-Siverskyi, Chernigov Region, during the day.
In total, 164 Ukrainian aircraft and 125 helicopters, 821 unmanned aerial vehicles, 303 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,013 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 364 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,471 field artillery and mortars, as well as 2,824 units of special military vehicles were destroyed during the operation.
This is just a case of Ukrops getting a smacking, then they send a recon drone to see how big a new arsehole they have been torn, and then they try to salvage something by claiming the carnage are Russian vehicles rather than their own.
