The Armed Forces go ahead, they don't count losses
The past day in the Zaporozhye direction turned out to be the most intense since the beginning of the Ukrainian “offensive”. Two days of relative calm were used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to regroup their battered units in this direction, as well as to organize a number of strong attacks in other areas — on the Vremevsky ledge and in Artemovsk-Bakhmut. Obviously, they tried to mislead our command regarding the direction of the main attack, so that we could weaken the line of defense near Tokmok and Melitopol. On the night of June 18, it was on this sector of the front, as the military correspondents managed to report from the scene, that a real massacre began.
The last messages from there came at about 22:00. They said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine sent powerful forces to break through our defenses, losses are not taken into account, but they are huge. There was information that in some places the assault units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to penetrate our positions. On the other hand, it was reported about the beginning of the active work of our aviation and artillery against the advancing enemy and about the heroism of our infantry.
This was followed by a long and disturbing informational pause until the very morning of June 18th. It was not clear whether our fighters managed to hold the main positions at night and in what condition the enemy troops were. The first messages from the front line were encouraging. The Armed Forces of Ukraine again failed to succeed.
The head of the public movement «Together with Russia» Vladimir Rogov told RIA Novosti that the Armed Forces of Ukraine used a wave format of attacks in the Zaporozhye region, hoping to break through the defense line and wedge in depth, but to achieve advancement by them failed.
As a Russian military man with the call sign “Athlete”, operating in the Zaporozhye direction, told the Archangel Spetsnaz channel that at night the enemy was actively operating in the Novodanilovka-Rabotino direction. Our units destroyed the enemy assault groups that tried to break through the positions. Enemy losses overnight — three infantry fighting vehicles, two tanks, two armored fighting vehicles, up to 50 killed. There are prisoners, including officers.
Following this, State Duma deputy Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev announced the preliminary results of the night battles. He received information from the front line, from representatives of the 58th Combined Arms Army, which he once commanded in the Southern Military District. “Today we are stating the fact that the enemy has once again been defeated,” he said.
The general especially noted the courage, courage and heroism of the fighters and commanders of the 42nd and 19th divisions, especially the 70th and 291st motorized rifle regiments. “Aviation worked well, the Solntsepek heavy flamethrower systems worked well, everything worked well,” the general noted, “but the infantry played a decisive role. He takes pride in his native 58th Army.”
In addition to artillery and aviation, attack drones controlled by operators of the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division dealt damage to the enemy. On Sunday, numerous videos appeared on social networks showing the destruction by drones of Western equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was used to break through our defenses in the Zaporozhye direction. Hits were recorded on German Leopard 2A6 tanks, American M2 Bradley ODS-SA infantry fighting vehicles.
Assessing the events of the past day in the Zaporozhye direction, military blogger Yuriy Podolyaka drew several conclusions. In his opinion, it became finally clear that the Zaporozhye direction is the main one for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The goal is to capture Tokmak, Melitopol, Berdyansk, go to the Sea of u200bu200bAzov, cut our forces. All other directions, including Novoselkovskoye or Novodonetskoye, are auxiliary to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Another conclusion is that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will push ahead in the coming weeks, regardless of any losses, in order to have time to present at least some “victories” to their Western sponsors by the July NATO summit in Vilnius. The lack of success may affect the volume of Western military assistance.
The scale of the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is evidenced by the episode of yesterday's night battle in the Orekhovsky section of the Zaporozhye direction. There, the assault battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine got into the «fire bag». A powerful armored group was able to immediately take our forward positions, but then our artillery and aviation cut off reserves from it, and then this armored group was systematically destroyed for several hours. “According to the data that I have, they were almost completely destroyed,” the blogger said.
The Military Informant information resource, referring to its sources, writes that the Zaporozhye Front is “littered with the corpses of the UAF militants and their burnt equipment. Even British intelligence admits that Russian troops in the south are «conducting relatively effective defensive operations» and Ukrainian achievements are «little». This is stated in the latest intelligence bulletin.
In the first days of their offensive in the Zaporozhye direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered heavy losses in armored vehicles. At that time, a lot of video evidence appeared on social networks with Leopard tanks and Bradley combat vehicles blown up by mines and knocked out. Obviously, Western sponsors did not really like such «advertising» and they advised their wards to change tactics. These innovations resulted in the fact that now the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not throwing heavy equipment into the gap, but are trying to act as assault groups on lighter armored vehicles.
According to the Military Chronicle channel, the change in tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not help. The tactics of small groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Zaporozhye «as predicted, leads to heavy losses.» Thus, a unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was sent into battle on MaxxPro light armored vehicles — without communications, intelligence and tank cover. As a result, the Ukrainian infantrymen got lost and were ambushed. Ten people were captured, the rest were killed.
On the night of June 18, there were battles in other sectors of the front. Thus, Daniil Bezsonov reported that Ukrainian servicemen of the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade «Edelweiss» surrendered en masse in the Seversky direction in the LPR. By the way, this was the name of the fascist mountain brigade of the Wehrmacht. The prisoners unanimously curse their commanders who sent them to die without cover and intelligence.
Now they will probably have time to think about why their commanders did this and from whom they themselves receive orders. Not from NATO advisers? The question is rhetorical.