Ispan wrote:Hello, my report on today's fighting in Kherson. It's not exhaustive, as I cherry picked the reports that give a good outline of the general situation, without getting bogged down in details, I also added my own personal observations to explain what's going on. I hope you find it interesting
https://guerraenucrania.wordpress.com/2022/08/29/noticias-de-la-guerra-29-08-2022-ataque-ucraniano-en-kherson-rechazado/
NOTE maps at original
War news 08/29/2022 Ukrainian attack on Kherson repulsed
29 August, 2022 Zhukov
Map of Western propaganda, purely for orientation purposes
General situation: While the Ukrainian attempts to bomb the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and nearby buildings containing radioactive fuel in order to do nuclear blackmail continue, see this Cassad blog post about it
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7828267.html
the Ukrainian army has launched another attack with forces of approximately three battalion tactical groups, from their positions at the bridgehead they have on the Ingulesh River and by another bridge they have laid. The results are the same from similar attempts this week, the enemy advances, pushes back the Russian pickets, and then is crushed by Russian artillery and aviation and put to flight by the Russian counterattack of elite troops of paratroopers and marines with losses for the enemy of dozens of armored and hundreds of casualties. The attacks are so weak compared to the expectations, that some observer is suspicious and thinks that they are nothing more than demonstrations and the real attack will come at some other point. I believe, based on the experiences of 2014 and the losses suffered so far that reach 40% of the initial troops at the beginning of the war, that the Ukrainian army is not capable of more.
Summary of Cassad 15:00 horas
Ukrainian sources claim a "counteroffensive in Kherson" and an attack in the direction of the village of Sukhoi Stavki (near Belogorki) and even the capture of the village of Sukhoi Stavki. So far, there has been an attempt to move from the Andreevka area in the direction of Bruskinskoye, Sukhoi Stavok and Kostroma.
In general, these are the same attempts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to implement the plans of mid-August with an offensive in Berislav to cut off part of the bridgehead of the Russian Armed Forces on the right bank of the Dnieper.
There are also intense artillery attacks on Berislav (the workshop of the machine-building plant is on fire), as well as traditional positional battles on the Ingulets River (Kriyoy Rog direction) and in the Potemkino-Vysokopolye area (Nikopol direction, where, by the way, the concentration of enemy troops in the Novorontsovka area was beaten by artillery at night, many killed). The enemy's losses in men and materiel are seen in the area of Olginka and Vysokopolya.
Note: reports from local sources confirm the Russian statement, they do not know if there will be five hundred dead as the statement says, but many bodies are seen lying in the field and destroyed armored,
In addition, active fighting is taking place in the Partizanskoye and Aleksandrovka area, where after the capture of Blagodatnoye, the front advanced towards Nikolaev.
On Novaya Kakhovka, residents were evacuated to shelters due to the shelling of the city with rocket launchers for several hours. In Kherson and in the area of N. Kakhovka, air defense is working. It should be noted that one HIMARS rocket malfunctioned and fell intact on the territory of the region. It has already been collected for study.
Summary of Strelkov 1600 horas en adelante
On the Kherson front today (this afternoon), the Ukrainian army launched a large-scale attack from the bridgehead on the Ingulets River, from the area of the Andreevka settlement, and made some progress.
All fixed bridges crossing the Dnieper River (two road and two railway) are damaged and closed to traffic. Now you can only cross the Dnieper River by transport only on ferries and pontoons.
Novaya Kakhovka, Beryslav, Donetsk, Makeyevvka, Yasynuvata, Gorlovka and many other towns are under heavy shelling.
On the Kherson front today (this afternoon), the enemy launched a large-scale attack from the bridgehead on the Ingulets River, from the area of the village of Andreyevka, and made some progress.
Rocket attacks continue at the crossings (bridge and ferry) in Kherson.
(…)
17:00 hours
It is reported about the repulse of the first attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the village of Blagodatovka. The enemy has not yet managed to surround the units of the Russian Armed Forces defending there, although the road, according to some reports, was cut off by the Ukros. I still do not have any information about the depth of the enemy advance in other areas.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a series of missile attacks on targets in Melitopol.
17:15
There are fragmentary reports that from dawn until 14:00 there was fierce fighting in the area of the large village of Malaya Aleksandrovka (NE of Davidov Brod). Our troops repelled the enemy's attacks and mostly held their positions, but the messages are confusing about who is in possession of the village.
The enemy is trying to break through to the village of Bruskinskoe, on the Berislav – Davydov Brod highway, penetrating into our offensive line. In appearance, an advance of the front in this area. Our artillery and aviation are actively working on the enemy forces that have broken through. So far, the enemy has not managed to significantly expand the "bottleneck" of its penetration.
18:15
Brief summary of the situation on the Kherson front:
The offensive along the line of the Ochakovsky estuary, up to Snigirevka, has the nature of a demonstration, carried out by insignificant forces in order to divert attention from the main attack conducted in the area of the previously captured bridgehead in the area of the Andreevka-Lozovaya settlement and to the east.
However, even here the enemy carried out an attack not from the bridgehead itself (from where it was expected), but from behind the Ingulets River across the river the newly built pontoon bridge near Andreevka by forces of at least one motorized battalion with a tank company and a group of infantry fighting vehicles (BMPs). Having quickly broken through the front, the enemy divided his attacking forces: the first group cut off the road to Blagodatovka and tried to break into the village, but was repulsed. The second, he advanced to Sukhoi Stavok (which, according to available data, he was able to capture immediately), and then - to cover Davydov Brod in the area of the village of Bruskinskoe.
At the same time, the enemy tried to create a bridgehead in the area of the village of Malaya Alexandrovka, to launch a counterattack from there, covering Davydov Brod from the east. Their attacks in this area from 14 o'clock were repulsed with heavy losses of personnel and material. Malaya Aleksandrovka is in our hands.
Thus, the enemy managed to "inflate the bubble" (expand the bridgehead) on the southern shore of Ingulets, but failed to significantly expand its bridgehead in the Eastern and Western directions, which provides good opportunities for its defeat by our reduced reserves. At this hour, enemy vanguard units are beaten by our aviation and artillery and rocket launchers. However, the battle has just begun, and the enemy is unlikely to limit himself to the blows already inflicted.
20:10
Information
Directly in the direction of Kherson (from the Ochakovsky estuary to Snigirevka:
Today, the enemy on a broad front (in three directions: 1. Kirovo-Aleksandrovka, 2. Stepovaya Dolina-Pravdino, 3. Krasnoe Znamya-Ternovye Pody) went on the offensive. In each direction advanced a force approximating to a Battalion Tactical Group (i.e. a mechanized infantry battalion reinforced with tanks and artillery)
The deployment ina classical way: on the tanks deployed in the line of battle, followed by infantry fighting vehicles and infantry on foot. Before the attack the enemy artillery bombarded the defensive positions, the reserves and made counter-battery fire. Our artillery inflicted a massive bombardment on the attacking enemy. As a result, the enemy did not succeed in the first direction: he lost 4 armored infantry, who did not have time to get on the tanks and armored during the retreat, was crushed during the retreat. In the second direction, the enemy captured the positionand went to Pravdino (on the farm, on the eastern outskirts), but after the shelling, they retreated to their original positions. He lost three tanks and an infantry fighting vehicle. In the third direction, where there was less artillery our, took the village of Ternovimi Podavimi our troops are trying to dislodge it from there. The fighting is still ongoing
PS: My opinion that the offensive in this area was demonstrative remained unchanged.
Slavyangrad report (multiple sources)
Apparently far from being deterred by its bloody failure, the enemy is sending its reserves to try to consolidate the bridgeheads
at the moment, the Ukrainian armed forces are moving armored vehicles from the Bereznegovatoye direction towards Davydov Brod.
According to reports, the convoy has up to 70 armored
It is likely that the enemy will now try to occupy Davydov Brod, build an additional bridgein Belogorka and completely occupy the Andreevka – Lozovoye – Belogorka – Davydov Brod section.
Lozovoye is not currently under Russian control!
To sum up: it is not clear whether the Ukrainian attack was a diversion operation, or a test attack to make "reconnaissance by fire", and is only the beginning of further fighting. What is clear is that the attack has been contained with serious losses, as usual.
Statement of the Russian army: 19:30 hours
"During the fighting, 26 Ukrainian tanks, 23 BMP armored personnel carriers and 9 other armored vehicles were destroyed and two Su-25 attack aircraft were shot down. The enemy's casualties amounted to more than 560 soldiers. Another attempt at an offensive by Ukrainian troops failed miserably.»
For its part, it is significant that the Ukrainian command is eloquently and deafeningly silent about the results of the combat in the sector.
Comment:
As Wellington said of the French at Waterloo "they came as usual and we beat them as always." Note that the troops employed are modest, about 3,000 men or a brigade at best. At any point on the front, more than one battalion never attacks, and more than one tank company is never deployed at the same point at a time. It may be out of malice that the Ukrainian company and battalion commanders are not able to coordinate anything major, but I also suspect that larger concentrations would simply be to offer a greater target to Russian aviation and artillery.
The prolonged bombardment for hours makes the surprise factor disappear, and much of the projectiles, even the valuable HIMARS rockets are wasted on terrorist bombings against the civilian population. Not only in this sector of the front, but instead of concentrating artillery for a rupture, taking out pieces from other less active fronts, the Ukrainians continue with the shelling of the cities of the Donetsk-Gorlovka sector and other places. As it turned out from the leaked or captured report on the plans of the previous offensive attempt, the Ukrainian commanders were asking for at least a couple of dozen more cannons to be sent to them. When for any operation that is nothing more than a local attack a couple of hundred artillery pieces would be needed.
It is quite possible that the explanation is that due to logistical difficulties and for fear of exposing the pieces to air strikes in their transport, the Ukrainians cannot move artillery or armored vehicles from one sector of the front to another and since in the last three weeks the Russians are attacking all over the front and making small advances everywhere, apart from the success in taking Peski and Marinka, this indicates that the Ukrainian forces are extended, weakened and if there are reserves there is no way to move them, or to achieve local superiority for an attack.
The bombardment of civilian populations in the sector is likely due to the fact that the enemy has no intelligence about Russian positions and forces and is bombing mostly blindly over the plane. Inhabited areas are the only visible target, andthis pattern has been observed throughout the war. If in truth the enemy has made an effort to beat the Russian positions and silence their artillery, it has not succeeded. The Russian artillery was not silenced and as is routine, it crushes any concentration of troops or attempted attack. It should also be noted that mechanized infantry forces have been put to flight by light infantry troops, paratroopers and marines, who are limited to destroying the remains that have remained after aerial and artillery bombardments.
The only new thing about the Ukrainian attack is that in an effort to distract and fix the Ukros have attacked and shelled along the entire front where they could, but it is clear that throwing a few artillery shells and rockets on the suffering civilians of Donetsk and other cities will not deceive the Russian command about the point where the main attack is being carried out.
Another day, and another absurd attack carried out in an open field, without surprise, without air cover with insufficient means, without preparation, and without any clear or at least affordable objective... in short more lives sacrificed in vain to prolong the agony of the Kiev regime. These isolated attacks also give easy victories to the Russians who are gradually destroying the Ukrainian mobile forces necessary to plug the gaps that will open on the static front when the Russians resume the offensive.
PS Very interesting article about the arrival of Russian reinforcements to the front and speculating on the possible directions of employment
https://antimaydan.info/2022/08/fantaziya_o_tretem_armejskom_korpuse.html
Western analysts who talk about the war being stalled are deluding themselves. The struggle of positions and the battle of attrition will continue, perhaps it lasts for weeks or another month, but every day that passes the balance is tilted on the Russian side. One day the time will come for the front to break up and the maneuvers to return, and the Ukrainians will no longer have anything left to prevent or respond to it.