Very long but worth the read, gives an idea of the way fighting in a city now is. From a MoA poster
Alexander Kots (Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist) reports from the centre of Bakhmut
https://www.kp.ru/daily/27490.5/4748873/
Old people greet Russians with tears in their eyes, the air is filled with iron: Report by Alexander Kots from the center of Bakhmut
Ukraine lost 32,000 people in the Artyomovskaya meat grinder
– Is it ours? – the roar of a tank engine (it is difficult to confuse it with something) gradually filled the dawn silence in a couple of blocks, and just in case, I check with our escort, a Wagner PMC fighter.
We have already walked the central district of Bakhmut (Artemovsk) , approaching the western outskirts. A couple of streets away from us, stormtroopers were preparing to attack several houses in the private sector.
– Our handsome man, – the “musician” smiled.
At the end of the street, a T-90 “Breakthrough” appeared with scouts on the armor. Having caught up with us, they dismounted, and the car, having approached the intersection, turned the tower to the left, moved the barrel, aimed something and hooted, “spitting out” white smoke from the cannon. The dilapidated house behind him seemed to stagger, and crumbling bricks rattled against his helmet.
I go inside from sin away, except for the stairs, nothing has survived here. I go up to the third floor, point the camera from the window – the most modern Russian tank in urban areas looks terribly bewitching. With each shot, the stairs tremble underfoot, and the tank keeps hitting and hitting. Having fired almost all the ammunition (I counted 17 shots), he famously jumps out to the intersection, turns sharply, at the same time setting the tower on course, and gracefully retires down the street, covered by multi-storey buildings.
– It’s time for us, too, – the accompanying scout hurries. – Until the “answer” arrived.
SOMETHING EXPLODES EVERY 10 SECONDS
Thus began my second day in Artemovsk, which this time I drove from the south side. Prior to that, he came from the north and east, but it’s easier to get to the center from Experienced, a satellite city of Bakhmut, from which no stone was left unturned during the fighting. As well as from almost all villages on the way from Debaltseve. Broken huts, burnt equipment, scorched engines of the plane that crashed in Zaitsevo… Drizzling rain added gloominess to an already depressing landscape.
You look out the window and try to imagine how hard these territories were given to the assault groups. In the daily front-line reports, everything looks simple and faceless. But here you realize that at the cost of the lives of our fighters, tens of kilometers of Russian land have been liberated in recent months. After all, these are not just points on the map – huge spaces between settlements, for which the enemy clung.
Behind the wheel of a trophy right-hand drive Ford pickup truck is a cheerful joker (the guys asked not to name even their call signs). He served in the army, in the marines. At the end of the contract, even before the start of mobilization, he resigned and joined the Company.
How did you get the pickup?
Yes, he got lost. He mixed up the addresses and drove to us. He asks: “Sashko where?” We told him: “Password”. He: “Mariupol”. We: “Wrong, we have Rostov.” And that’s it, it’s standing, clapping its eyes. Thanks for the car.
We fly through Opytnoye, along a broken road that has turned into a cemetery of burned-out cars, our driver winds as if he had been involved in motorsport all his life.
“Here you have to move fast. Here, a couple of days ago, a sniper was working on this building from a long-range gunner. Therefore, the movement here is fast. There are skyscrapers ahead, from which they can work on us, – he nods forward.
It offers a view of the multi-storey Artemovsk. To the right, about 200 meters away, something explodes. Here at all something explodes every 10 seconds. You quickly get used to this background.
– Here is the center, – states our guide.
“WE DO NOT WANT TO GO TO THE OTHER SIDE”
We skip several intersections, turn into the yard, jump out of the car and slide into the basement, where the Wagner reconnaissance platoon is organized. A minute later, civilians are brought in after us. As they advance, the “musicians” take civilians out of the danger zone.
“Luda,” a woman with a small dog in her arms smiles. – Here, thanks to the guys got out . Why did you stay in the city? Firstly, we are already old, we built a house for our old age, everything was there. It was a pity to quit. Two dogs again…
The fair-haired woman has unnaturally red cheeks, on which the capillaries appeared like cobwebs. The blood rushed to his face, the pressure must have risen a lot. But she smiles happily. Although there is little joy in the situation, frankly.
– The guys came, they said – evacuation, take documents with them. For about 30 minutes they got out under fire, it was hard. But the guy who accompanied us was very nice, didn’t hurry, stopped, waited for us to come up. Thank you very much, we arrived without incident.
We are neighbors, we went out together. My father is still being dragged on a stretcher, he is wounded, – the man is trying to catch his breath. – Shrapnel shrapnel leg four days ago. We sat and waited to be evacuated only to this side, that side does not suit us. I would have been taken to the Ukrainian army. We also have pigeons, plus the parents are too heavy, so they stayed.
“I was wounded, I was treated for a month,” his elderly, but good-looking mother, Tatyana, chatters.
In his hands he pulls flowers, tearing off a leaf – Mother and stepmother and Proleska. Tore it off while they were evacuating. Protective psychological block, diverts attention from the surrounding horror. I ask how the Ukrainian “zahists” (defenders) behaved.
“Yes, we almost never saw them,” the man says. – They will jump – they will jump out. Today I went to look at the neighboring house, and there are five more soldiers sitting there – crests. They grabbed me by the pulley, I thought, that’s it, they won’t let me go. They say: “You have no faith.” I almost cry, my parents are there, I say, they are lying, I can leave. He reluctantly let go. Literally three houses away from us, they were sitting with machine guns, grenade launchers, when the guys came for us.
– They all came to us in soot, they asked for directions, how they say to move to the railway station. “How do you live here,” Tatyana Mova depicts. – That is how we live. Apparently they were kicked out and they fled, in a hurry.
What have you been doing all this time?
– Humanities mostly. Civilian volunteers opened a point with a Starlink plate, gave canned food, it was possible to go online … We have had no electricity, no water since the summer. Collected rain, melted snow.
Tatyana is from Dagestan, from Derbent. She studied in Volgograd, where she met her husband, a Soviet officer, originally from Artemovsk. They moved here after retirement. This is him now, wounded, being dragged on a stretcher by the Wagnerites.
– We have relatives in Narofominsk, Murmansk. Where will you show us? I am gray-haired, not made up. In general, I am very cheerful, I am 75 years old, – a woman surprises with her cheerfulness.
“Now we will deliver you to the evacuation center, the doctors will examine and send you further,” instructs the 53-year-old reconnaissance platoon commander, whom his subordinates often call not by call sign, but simply by Batya. – Everything terrible is behind, now everything will be fine.
They bring Tatyana’s elderly wounded husband.
– How did you get hooked?
– There was shelling, I did not have time to hide, I fell. Immediately in the arm, and in the back, and in the leg. My son and a neighbor pulled me out, if not for them, he would have bled to death.
– You served in the Soviet army. Is it hard to watch now?
– Yes, how … For me, the Soviet Union is the Motherland. Otherwise, I would not have been hiding here, not waiting for the Russians, I would have left with crests. And I was waiting, I thought you would come quickly, I have the Order of Labor Glory, – the old man’s tears well up.
The uniformed boys turn away, their jaws flexing furiously. Civilians get into a battered car, which takes them to the rear. And we, together with Batya, go for a walk in the center of Artemovsk, running across the open spaces under fire.
UKRAINIAN “VOENTORG”
Along the roads – iron anti-tank hedgehogs and concrete gouges. It seems that Kyiv was preparing to repel tank wedges. But infantry entered the city, for which these barriers are not an obstacle. Center, Freedom Square, dug around the perimeter. The defensive value of these fortifications is doubtful. They could easily be swept away by artillery from Experienced. In general, it seems that Bakhmut was not seriously prepared for defense inside in engineering terms.
– And it is, – Batya confirms, while we pass the House of Culture on the way to the City Council. – Maybe they just drank the allocated money. The soldiers were simply shoved into the houses, from which we had to knock them out. The prisoners were taken in batches.
– And why is it taking so long to liberate the city?
– Very strong resistance was on the way to Artemovsk. And then we just broke it. We reached the center from the south in two weeks. At first, the units were different, powerfully resisted. And here they put in the defense from Vinnitsa, Transcarpathia, from Nikolaev. But in general there were a lot of shouts that it was an impregnable fortress. Not so impregnable. And not a fortress. They did not even sit in the trenches dug in the center. Everyone was in residential houses, and when they left, the nine-story buildings were folded so as not to leave us heights. But even now they do not run from their positions, they resist.
The Ukrainians also blew up the City Council building to avoid unnecessary symbolism. Russian flags were hoisted over a pile of bricks, formalizing the legal capture of the city.
Dad is from Ukraine. His father and brother were killed by the “Pravoseki”, he went to the militia, fought in the LPR. And in 2016, when the “hot phase” of the confrontation subsided, he moved to Wagner. He has military experience in Africa.
– Here they had a food warehouse, – the commander of the reconnaissance platoon shows the charred inside of the house with columns on the central square. – And almost at every intersection in the basement was equipped with an ammunition station. During the retreat, they abandoned their ammunition, thanks to them for that. Once again, we do not waste time on logistics. Yes, you can come down and have a look.
In the basement – a pile of boxes. Here is a real arms international. American grenades, Czech cartridges for Kalashnikovs, Bulgarian shots for grenade launchers… All this goes into action and returns to the enemy – literally and figuratively.
– Guys, lay down on the ground, the lower, the safer, I need you alive, – in the meantime, Batya is leading the assault on the radio.
Its fighters are storming private houses in the western quarters of Artemovsk . This is the rest of the city under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We climb to the surviving high-rise, which offers a panoramic view of the battlefield. Flashes of gaps flicker in the white smoke. Shells flying in both directions rustle in the air, the cannon of our BMP bangs from the side. The air is literally stuffed with iron. On the hill opposite, a nine-story building, in which the enemy sat down, was engulfed in flames. In the back of the room, a machine gunner watches this through binoculars. In front of him, a large-caliber machine gun peers through a broken window.
– The enemy (in fact, it is called obscenely synonymous with the word “gay”, and the other side uses the same epithet in relation to “musicians) has two 200s and two 300s (killed and wounded. – Ed.), They say sometimes they want to give up, sometimes they don’t want to, – his walkie-talkie wheezes.
“Well, they don’t want to, let them burn,” someone answers phlegmatically.
There is no time for sentiment. Either you or you. No one will take unnecessary risks. The stage of chivalry has long passed.
– We support our guys, if you need to sort out some positions, – the machine gunner explains. – We work at different distances, we had to 2.5 kilometers. The machine works well – DShK, the good old machine, helps out. The main thing is accurate, albeit old.
Shoulder not fall off?
– Normally, compared to the “Kord” or “Cliff” there is almost no return. The main thing is to install properly.
FORMER CONS FIGHT COURAGELY
An evacuation team is on duty in the basement of a neighboring building. Their task is to pull the wounded out from under fire.
– Stormtroopers also help us, we all interact, – the commander of the evacuation group meets us. – Our fighters can both fight and provide first aid, they have mastered it in the training camp. In addition to ours, we are also withdrawing civilians. Most of us are glad to see, they meet us with smiles. The enemy, by the way, does not stop firing during the evacuation of civilians. Just recently, grandparents were pulled out, taken out from under fire. On the other side, the grandmother was killed by machine gun fire. It happens that the soldiers of the evacuation teams die, not without it.
– What is the algorithm of your work?
– Algorithms are only in books. Here you drag the fighter as long as you can. The guys come running to help. There is no such thing that you have a certain segment, then you quit and left. You pull on your hands as long as you have the strength. Rewind, stop the bleeding, give painkillers. Then we pass it on to the medical services. They are transported to the rear. During my service, no one died in my arms.
– How long have you been fighting?
– Here since December, 17th.
– What did you do before that?
– I’m in the Project, – he is a little embarrassed.
The project here is called the recruitment of former prisoners from places of deprivation of liberty. The recruits themselves are called “designers”.
– What did he sit for, if not a secret?
– For terrible things … Reluctance even to speak. Weapons, shootouts, fights…
Batya says that those recruited from the colonies fight bravely, and many, after being pardoned, return to a second contract.
– I am very proud that one of the fighters of my platoon, a former prisoner, received a state award personally from the hands of the president, – the commander of the reconnaissance platoon admits.
BREAKTHROUGH T-90
Following the tank that worked on the enemy, we leave Bakhmut to the rear waiting area. The rear – conditionally, the artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues to process the ways of approach to Artemovsk. But he does it already without a spark, doomed. We are interested in the details of the morning sortie with the crew commander.
– The enemy has a dominant height there, ours are in a lowland, he is watching us. It was necessary to demolish the building on which the cameras are standing, watching our movements, – he explains casually. – We demolished the upper floor, below the trees interfere, but they threw cumulative ones there, I think they liked it.
– Is there any rethinking of the use of tanks here?
– Certainly. If earlier the tank was the main striking force of the Ground Forces, now it is more of a means of supporting the infantry. Tactics have changed dramatically. With the modern saturation of the front edge with anti-tank weapons, there can be no powerful breakthroughs in technology. They have both NLAW and Javelins – a lot of money, we will immediately lose the car. The infantry goes forward, stumbled upon resistance, we drive up, work out, attack aircraft move on.
– How long have you been fighting on the T-90 “Breakthrough”?
– Seventh month.
– A tenacious car, what’s the secret?
– I won’t reveal everything. We don’t jump out at a fool, first you will walk on your own legs, look, and determine the escape routes. You will agree with the infantry, you will establish cooperation, how they will cover you. Only after that you go to the firing position. The car is expensive, it’s a pity to lose it.
– How long have you been with the Company?
– Since last April. I also took Popasnaya. I sat at home, watched on the Internet how our troops acted, and just wanted to help. Not for money – for the idea.
– Have you served before?
– Yes, I rose to the rank of senior officer, 23 years of “calendars”, 30 years of total service, retired in 2020. I try to complete tasks 100%. Never broke down. I have an old tank from June, for a thousand shots – not a single delay or misfire. We monitor the situation thoroughly. They rely on you, you cannot fail.
– How do you rate the T-90?
– A very good car, especially when there is something to compare with. Compared to the T-72B3, there is more space, a commander’s multi-channel sight was installed, there is a thermal imaging channel independent of the gunner, a rangefinder channel, an optical channel, and a television channel. A closed anti-aircraft installation is generally a bomb, especially in the city: the gunner works on his targets from a cannon, and you twist around the upper floors so that, God forbid, they don’t get out and get caught. There are, of course, shortcomings, but we have a connection with Uralvagonzavod, which is working on all the shortcomings.
Two helicopters come overhead to attack, sending missiles in the direction of the enemy from a pitch-up. The sky is cut by the black trail of their footprints. A few seconds later, explosions are heard somewhere in the distance. Despite the fact that our forces already control more than 80 percent of Bakhmut, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to resist – Kyiv will not dare to give the command to withdraw its troops. According to the latest data from the Wagnerites, Ukraine lost 32,000 people killed in the Artyomov meat grinder.
Posted by: Oblomovka daydream | Apr 15 2023 19:28 utc | 157
Zaluzni reported to Zelensky about the low quality of the equipment that the West delivered in the last series. Several Leopard tanks broke down in the first encounter, and the artillery shells supplied are of poor quality, some of which are over 30 years old.
In the Kupyansk direction, artillery fire of the "Western" grouping of troops hit AFU units in the areas of Dvurechnaya, Sinkovka, Timkovka of the Kharkiv region and Stelmakhovka of the Luhansk People's Republic. In addition, the actions of three Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups were suppressed in the areas of Novoselovskoye and Kuzemivka of the Luhansk People's Republic and Masiutovka of the Kharkiv region.
Up to 35 Ukrainian servicemen, two vehicles, and a D-20 howitzer were destroyed during the day.
Re: Russian special military operation in Ukraine #41
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