Strike with one and a half ton UPAB
The situation in the NVO zone has sharply intensified in recent days. Before the announced offensive, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are making attempts to test our defenses in different directions. They are successfully suppressed by Russian aviation. Against this background, Supreme Commander Vladimir Putin made a trip to the headquarters of the Dnepr and Vostok military groups.
PHOTO : ROSOBORONEXPORT SITE.
The situation has escalated dramatically in recent days. This is due, as the military says, to the fact that the earth has dried up, the “mulyaka” (as the locals call the spring mud) has hardened and heavy armored vehicles are already able to move along the field roads. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are concentrating reserves, our troops are trying to detect the accumulation of enemy forces and strike at them.
As the reporter Rudenko said in his information channel, starting from Monday, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have stepped up in the Svatovsky and Ugledarsky directions, trying to conduct reconnaissance in force. But, the resource notes, “our aviation worked for five plus, scattering all their iron across the local forests.”
In the area of Vogledar, attack helicopters were raised into the air along with dryers to destroy enemy equipment. At least three tanks were destroyed, plus several infantry fighting vehicles and pickup trucks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On Tuesday morning, the movement of the enemy was also noted in the Avdiivka direction. There, our aircraft worked on enemy positions using FABs — high-explosive bombs. Explosions were heard even in Donetsk.
Representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have repeatedly complained that after Russian engineers upgraded conventional free-fall bombs, turning them into high-precision weapons, Ukrainian air defense has no means of fighting against them.
Indeed, our pilots called such FABs “falling cast iron”. They did not differ in particular accuracy and were used to cover area targets. To improve accuracy, it was necessary to drop bombs from an extremely low altitude, which made the crew an easy target for enemy air defense, including man-portable anti-aircraft systems.
Now FABs — and we have a huge number of them in warehouses — are massively equipped with an additional navigation module, a folding wing, tail, which turns such ammunition into an UPAB — a guided planning bomb. Aircraft use them without even entering the enemy's air defense zone. After being dropped, the bomb can fly 50-70 kilometers in autonomous flight.
On Monday evening, in the western part of Artemovsk (Bakhmut), one of the last defense areas of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was bombed. Columns of smoke from explosions were seen even by residents of neighboring Konstantinovka.
On Tuesday morning, a whole series of strikes were inflicted on Ukrainian positions using one and a half ton UPAB-1500s. A large number of planning bombs UPAB-500 in the Kupyansk area were hit at the location of the 14th separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In other words, the Russian Aerospace Forces are stepping up strikes using these weapons on the eve of the announced Ukrainian offensive.
Analyzing the possible directions of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, experts mainly talk about three: Svatovsk, Zaporozhye and Donetsk, meaning the latter and the attack on Artemivsk.
For example, the same reporter Rudenko does not rule out that the enemy can move forces in these three directions at once. And already to the place where a gap is formed in our defense, he will begin to draw up reserves from near Dnepropetrovsk and Pavlograd. The main reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine gather there, since from there the troops can be moved in any direction — towards Vuhledar, Donetsk, Berdyansk or Melitopol.
As for Artemovsk, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny cannot forgive the huge losses that his troops suffered here. He will try to attack in Artemovsk along the flanks, he will try to surround the «Wagnerites». Although this tactic will not succeed. Especially considering that units of the Airborne Forces are now operating on the flanks in Artemovsk.
The most dangerous direction, according to many, is the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Zaporozhye, access to Melitopol, in order to then develop an attack on Crimea.
A breakthrough of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and in the direction of Vuhledar, to Volnovakha, in order to cut the Donetsk-Mariupol road, will have a great propaganda effect for Zelensky.
Most likely, no one, even Zelensky, knows the main direction of the future offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine . The decisive word will rest with Kiev's American military advisers, who are now scouring intelligence data to find weaknesses in our defenses.
Zelensky and his team are still busy with their main business — begging the West for more weapons. But many of Kyiv's military sponsors seem tired of the petitioner and are leaning towards ending the conflict in some way. They are pushing Kyiv to the offensive, acting according to the logic — either pan or go. And in this case, it is most likely «disappeared».