19:02
Have you thought about how much of a shortage there must be of helicopter pilots now?
It is one of the more difficult specialist roles and when a helicopter is shot down you die every time, right?
It’s also not something you learn in half a year.
Pilots at least have a chance to try to limp home or jump behind their own lines and they can fire their load from a distance.
19:09
Seems like the Russians continue to reinforce in Kherson?
With these astronomical losses, it must be quite lively somewhere, we have Kherson or northern Luhansk to choose from, maybe they are going full throttle on both?
What is ongoing non-stop is guided ammunition against Russians in trenches in Kherson, Luhansk is probably more mobile and attempts at encirclements is the feeling but maybe they have also gotten indirect fire going there?
A large number of platforms have been delivered in recent weeks and the US weapons package included thousands of guided shells and HIMARS ammunition.
19:15
I think so too, that area was never fortified because Izyum was the flank protection and they have had to try to build a defense in a short time and with too few units so it could only become “islands” without overlapping fields of fire there (the whole West’s) SOF and reconnaissance could nestle in between.
Then they are surely defending channeling terrain and Ukraine is going around with bridge layers, lots of waterways and rivers.
I have hoped they try to hold Svatove so it becomes a hard encirclement this time but maybe they abandon it just as you say 🙂
I have thought they can hold Troitske for a while due to its proximity to Russia, Ukraine probably won’t try to encircle inside Russian territory and many units are surely retreating up there if they can.
19:22
Was on some pro-Russian forum now and according to them there is a Russian counterattack near Vuhledar and in Donetsk.
(a shift from it being a Russian offensive and Ukrainian counterattacks to the opposite I just noticed).
15:02
14:19, it could be that Sweden has demanded total secrecy regarding Archer?
It would be fun if it is used for counter battery fire with Arthur and has been part of the rise of grilled Russian artillery systems.
Hope is the last thing to die except among the Russians who have never had either hope or joie de vivre where they stand blinking with mud up to at least their knees now in their poorly dug trenches – it’s like a little mud bath at a ridiculously expensive spa resort that works wonders for the soles of the feet.