>Russian forces may be preparing to resume offensive operations around Vuhledar, although persistent personnel and ammunition issues will likely continue to constrain Russian forces from advancing.
>Internal dynamics within the Russian military may be driving the potential resumption of costly offensives near Vuhledar that promise little operational benefit. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly ordered Eastern Military District (EMD) commander Colonel General Rustam Muradov to take Vuhledar at any cost to settle widespread criticism within the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) about the lack of progress and significant losses in the Vuhledar area.
>It is still not clear if Shoigu has decided to provide Muradov with the necessary resources to resume offensives, but Muradov may decide that he needs to resume offensive operations regardless to demonstrate his competence as EMD commander.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-9-2023
How would the russians fare in a renewed offensive against Vuhledar after the 155th and 40th Naval Infantry Brigades' effort culminated? Is Putin forcing another suicidal assault for minimal tactical gains under pressure to appease his constituencies or does the russian command see any potential operational advantage to it? In case of another failed offensive with high losses in Vuhledar will the ZSU exploit that sector to drive a wedge towards Volnovakha in the spring? Let's discuss.
The Colonel General now has access to the latest russian military engineering technology. I predict he will overrun vuhledar in no more than 2 weeks
When are the Daleks entering the battlefield?
Once they clear all staircases from the battlefield.
Checkmate
Real talk, how the frick do these things function?
Is there a hole cut into the frame to pass ammo up to the poor frick inside?
I refuse to believe they can fire without shearing away and/or tipping the tank
There's a door at the side of the turret to reload it I think, doubt there is actually a hole in it. And since its just a HMG, it will have snowballs chance in hell of hitting a drone. What a useless PoS
pic related. You have to stand OUTSIDE to load in 30+ kilo crates with 60 shots per crate. Which it chews through in mild bursts
>You have to stand OUTSIDE to load
The frick you making drama for? MT-LB has no armour anyway, it doesn't matter if your inside or outside at all.
Its just amusing that the loader can be killed with a thrown rock.
anon was asking how it was loaded. That answers that. Also there is a difference sitting concealed behid sheet metal or outside flailing around with the crates. Loader is the first to be killed with any kind of aimed/explosive shots
Would the sheet metal even stop 7.62 anyway?
If you're gonna be shot at and die ayway does it matter if it's in or outside of the tank.
You have put more thoughts into this than the people who built it
the funniest thing about this crap, they do in the factory. This is not the handiwork of soldiers in the field
again
Sounds like he wants Russia to lose.
If he gets replaced we will lose a valuable western asset.
That or he is growing increasingly disenchanted with the MoD establishment once more due to the slow pace of the winter offensive and Shoigu and Gerasimov may be trying to profit from the benefit they still have with Monke by showing service at any cost.
They are trying to get the tactical upper hand by capturing key towns in the Donbass prior to the beginning of spring.
In the Russian military sphere, they believe once they capture a border town, Ukrainian defensive lines will falter. If they can do this before Ukraine is ready for a spring offensive, they can get the momentum to steamroll and take the Donbas.
Of course, should they fail, their forces will be depleted, they’ll be weaker to Ukrainian counterattacks, and they’ll suffer higher casualties.
Ukraine sort of wanted a Russian winter offensive since it’d help them have a higher chance of success in the spring, according to Michael Kofman (who visited the eastern front).
Ukraine is confortable giving the initiative to Russia and grind their combat power but winter was a good opportunity for Ukraine to launch counter-offensive operations but they were frustrated by insufficient armor and shells. Basically the Western armored deliveries were not timely enough for Ukraine to launch something this winter and there was no choice to but to give the russians the initiave.
So far there isn't a unified russian effort to capture the whole of Donbas since their advences aren't mutually supporting, Prigozhin said at this rate it would take years to reach the borders of the Donetsk region, so this may suggest that political-military careerism (based on who Putin currently favors) might be at play with this decision.
They definitely attempted to push at other places on the front the same time as Bakhmut, but they stalled at the forests in Kremmina and got blown the frick up in Vulendar.
Checked, but
>If they can do this before Ukraine is ready for a spring offensive, they can get the momentum to steamroll and take the Donbas.
Can they? There hasn't been a single time something like this has happened in this war.
Pretty much all the territory captured or recaptured has been taken via relatively quick offensives.
I think this is the case because slow takeovers like Bakhmut give time to the defending side to create and reinforce a second line of defense that they can fall back on once the primary line breaks.
Even in Severodonetsk, when the ukes were under a much bigger threat of encirclement and the war was moving much faster, the fall of the twin cities only led to the villages in the immediate vicinity also being captured, but nothing more. In fact, I believe the huge cost Russia incurred in its capture of these 2 cities is what allowed Ukraine to successfully counterattack a couple of months later.
It's a weird belief to have, especially when your own gains have mostly been made by doing the exact opposite.
Actually advancing requires a massive support infrastructure behind the fighters so they can actually extend their territory without running out of people/fuel/ammo etc.
Remember last year, when russia spent weeks accumulating forces at the border? That's what they would need to repeat, but a) they don't have the ressources and b) if they gather forces or supplies anywhere near the front this guy always show up
The shaping operations have been completed, time it's for real.
I suppose those hundreds of knocked out tanks and IFVs will provide the next waves a little more cover than the previous ones.
losing more than BTG worth of armor was merely recon in force. Something completely missed by nu-k, as expected. Now the russians know where ukrainians are and can truly lift the eyebrow.
Ever heard of softening up? They were calibrating Ukrainian capabilities. The data has been downloaded and the calculations are complete.
Eye brows are raised, gloves partially off
Why don't you understand they weren't trying then? This time it's different.
Yes, the original waves were liars and traitors. The new waves will be the heroes unless they fail when they too will be liars and traitors
They were calibrating the mine fields
Only took three weeks for the calculations too. Westoids BTFO. Now the cum socks are drying, the anuses are prolapsing, and crocodile is cooking. Ukies will learn what the bear can do when its hungover and in anal pain.
>after two months of attacks Russian forces concluded that Ukraine has minefields deployed around the city
>Vuhledar
>City
Black person it's literally a few commie blocks in the middle of nowhere
And now those minefields have been thoroughly cleared, now the real offensive can begin. Surely the hohols wouldn't have deployed *more* mines.
The cauldron bubbles. The butt has ensconced the penis.
...they found some new minefields to drive into?
What is a minefield, comrade?
stop asking questions and go drive around those fields until you hear a loud voice
It's a field that's is yours clearly. Now get in there and take it.
Apparently the 136th is taking over from the 155th, they are slightly concerned about the lack of ammo but otherwise show fine sense of irony for their situation.
https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1633613230382694400
Imagine being the second wave that gets sent in after what happened to the 155th. Regimental morale must be abysmal.
It's actually the third or fourth wave if you include Pavlinka, which you should since it is the same battle for the same heights. As I said, the chaps have I fine sense of irony.
Nothing happened to 155th. They met all objectives and were rotated out as planned. Now, take this showel
>Imagine being the second wave that gets sent in after what happened to the 155th. Regimental morale must be abysmal.
What happened for such an increase in armor losses?
they lost almost 200 vehicles attacking vulhedar mega timefortress last month, oh and 5000 men, but who cares about Russian men
you gotta be shitting me, are they really wasting all their ammo on Bakhmut
did they really waste so much resources on the fricking worthless town now turned pile of rubble?
all because it was all over the news?
They managed to impale themselves worse on Bakhmut than Severodonetsk and Mariupol. According to intelligence sources 30000 have died on the Bakhmut offensive so far. Urban warfare hasn't even reached it's maximum there, mind you.
yeah that was evident
i didnt think they would waste all their ammo too however
taking the L at Bakhmut mightve been a better idea, future attacks on vuhledar will be as disastrous as the first
>136th
An actual brigade with experienced troops or is this a reconstituted zombie brigade of DOA mobiks like the 155th?
wasnt 155th naval infantry? i dont know if they had been chewed up yet
They re-staffed six times at least.
They were in there from the beginning and fought in mariupol and pavilvka as well as others. They were considered quite elite prewar, but then they all died, then the replacements all died, and then the next one's died, and so on.
>An actual brigade with experienced troops or is this a reconstituted zombie brigade of DOA mobiks like the 155th?
The 136th is original based in Dagestan, and the got shredded to pieces in the Kherson goodwill gesture, and then restaffed.
155th has been reconstituted 7 times
guess 136th?
Is this them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/136th_Separate_Guards_Motor_Rifle_Brigade)? Looks like they are Dagestanis? Isn't Muradov also from Dagestan?
>Looks like they are Dagestanis?
you mean the region that heavily protested against conscription?
will they react badly if this unit gets vaporized too?
That unit got vaporized twice already and nobody cared.
did the wives/mothers get some potatoes for their loss? or it all your son/husband/father deserted and lol you get nothing?
>heavily protested
lmao
They aren't going to do shit
Wish they did, but they aren't going to
>you mean the region that heavily protested against conscription?
they protested until a shitton of riot cops arrived
you'll need a lot more dead moskals before russia becomes unstable politically. it helps that even their wives don't seem to care much about their husbands, it's as if truly nobody gives a shit how many of them die. bizarre
Well when your husband can legally beat you bloody. Going through dead ones until you find one who won’t probably isn’t a bad idea.
serf world. "prostitutes will birth more" and everybody is out for themselves only. Hoping they get spared if they sit quietly in the background
Cursed asiatic imperial construct. Even the fricking changs have at least a few positive qualities
oh boy, here we go again
So Vuhledar is basically Shoigyu's Bakhamut. So the various war chiefs are less concerned about fighting Ukraine and more about one-upping each other?
Shoigu's PMC is operating in the Vuhledar area, Chechen law enforcement units are punitively raping deserters in the Vuhledar area too, Wagner is operating in Bakhmut, Kreminna and Zaporizhzhia areas and Gazprom is now considering owning a few volunteer battalions as well. It's a shitshow.
Why Gazprom? I don't comprehend it.
To offset financial and bureaucratic burdens on the federal and regional subsjects' budgets.
Because the various "boyars" are given "fiefs" (companies and economic sectors) to live-off from. Gazprom is one of the richest "fiefs" in that you can steal/skim a lot as long as the tsar gets his cut. But the tsar can giveth and taketh away and the "boyars" are expected to help the tsar in times of need so like in a feudal society they are expected to raise troops in times of war, which in modern parlance is PMCs/mercenaries.
this but unironically. Also Gazprom is a huge and halfway efficient company, they are more competent and efficient than government organisations and have the money to pay for troops.
in russia there is no functional difference between the state and the major companies. The latter are extensions of the former often acting as personal oligarch and tzar courts piggy banks
Gazprom is forming a private security company to protect strategic energy assets throughout Russia but latter they decided to join Putin's efforts to form volunteer battalions to avoid declaring another wave of mobilization. Energy companies have resources to staff and equip these battalions in Ukraine and they promise good salaries (5k$ per month), the problem of course is that the Gazprom battalions will be competing for the same volunteer pool as Wagner.
>various war chiefs [...] one-upping each other
>Shoigu's PMC
>Wagner is operating in Bakhmut
>Gazprom is now considering owning a few volunteer battalions
Everyone around Putin is getting their own PMC..
Eventually we'll see a PMC war in Russia.
Nukes will be involved.
It will be glorious.
gayners are on their way out. Their comm channels to the official army were cancelled, their recruitment pool (prisons) cut, no ammo given and the head cook is half way out of the window already
>Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly ordered Eastern Military District (EMD) commander Colonel General Rustam Muradov to take Vuhledar at any cost to settle widespread criticism within the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) about the lack of progress and significant losses in the Vuhledar area.
what a great idea: let's double our losses and still not take vuhledar!
It's already started, and they're already attempting the tactics that were proven as successful at Soledar - instead of attacking head-on, they are going to concentrate reserves from all over the front and attempt to bypass Vuhledar on both sides until they can isolate it.
The problem with these cauldron-obsessed strategies is that they were already tried at Sumy and other places, so there is no guarantee they might work out in the long term. Especially if the defenders have reserves.
>It's already started, and they're already attempting the tactics that were proven as successful at Soledar - instead of attacking head-on, they are going to concentrate reserves from all over the front and attempt to bypass Vuhledar on both sides until they can isolate it.
that's what they tried first time in Vuhledar, one group forward, two groups trying to go around to isolate city, all three got blown the frick out. Turns out when you don't have overwhelming advantage it's hard to push
I thought they were experimenting the new 'Assault Detachment' units to infiltrate urban areas instead.
That's Wagner (supposedly).
At Vuhledar they tried following actual Russian doctrine - mass mechanized assault supported by (non-)precision artillery strikes and (meager) close air support.
They will complain and riot, and then they will be imprisoned without food and new units that have been kept in media isolation are brought in and nothing will change.
They tried mechanized maneuvre warfare but that Ukrainian officer on Twitter that shared the Assault Detachment manual said it was from the Vuhledar sector. And it is consistent with late dismounted infantry assaults footage we saw.
I wonder if this will go down in history as the Slavic reboot of the Isonzo campaign
some pro hohol channels claim that the 155th and the 97th have been merged and are revolting, refusing to go on another suicidal assault. Take it with a grain of salt, but there are some videos of russians and DNTR refusing the order to attack Vulhedar floating around on Telegram.
>"oh btw two other waves got mowed down before you, hope you'll do better mobik-kun <3 and if you refuse it's chechen rape *~~"
I do not quite understand how you're motivate those people. It's not like russia can believably claim defense and their motherland being in danger like in WW2, and even the dumbest vatnik will realize russia fricked him over when he gets a tactical shovel and a rusty rifle before getting sent against a fortified target.
Most of these mobiks are genuinely uneducated morons. Once you read about the Soviet Afghan war and the Chechen wars no amount of Russian stupidity surprises you.
These mobiks are likely borderline illiterate, but they definitely lack access to the breadth of information available to you. They are unironically less capable of identifying viable strategy and manoeuvres, or even models of IFVs and tanks, than a /k/ autist. They are not trained on how to deal with mines and they may not even know they’re in the field. They aren’t even aware of what they’re unaware of. They cannot fathom the precision of fire modern artillery is capable of, they probably only have a rudimentary grasp of forward drone reconnaissance. These people are borderline peasants from provincial villages, their world is small
It's true. Third vuhledar assault was cancelled a couple of days ago because the new brigade (created merging previous destroyed units) refused to go.
There is a 9min video about them telling the officer to frick off, that they are not going and they will spend 7 years in prison with no problem.
>refusing to go on another suicidal assault.
Guess who is joining Wagner to assault Bakhmut.*~~) 2 in 1 PMC and Shtrafbat
I heard they deployed Rosgvardia to quelch the mutiny.
>Shoigu has decided to provide Muradov with the necessary resources to resume offensives
He can't keep getting away with it.
It seems they are really going for a second round
>In Vuhledar, Russian troops have again sought the attack. Tonight Russian troops are reportedly storming Vuhledar again, from the (south) east.
https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1634330938149666818?cxt=HHwWhIC83YjVp64tAAAA