Author: Cheng Mo
Executive summary: 1. The Russian army has launched a fierce offensive in eastern Ukraine and made small progress; 2. The Ukrainian Air Force has frequently dispatched to support the Ukrainian army in ground battles; 3. The Ukrainian army has refuted rumors that the main battle tank of the U.S. aid to Ukrainian Abrams has withdrawn from the front line; 4. Russia's advanced radar station, known as the "drone nemesis", has been destroyed by Ukrainian drones; 5. The Ukrainian army continues to attack targets in Crimea and Russia; 6. Italy will provide Ukraine with "Storm Shadow" cruise missiles; 7. Canada will deliver 50 advanced armored personnel carriers to Ukraine ahead of schedule; 8. The Ukrainian army destroyed 1,320 enemies in a single day.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Syrsky, said on April 28 that the fighting in eastern Ukraine had deteriorated, and the Ukrainian army had retreated to a new line of defense from three positions. He said that the Ukrainian army has established new defensive positions west of the villages of Bertich and Shemenivka, as well as in the village of Novomikhalivka, near the town of Maryinka, to the south.
In recent months, the Russian army has been launching a fierce offensive on the Bakhmut-Avdiivka-Maryinka arc of contact in Donetsk Oblast, with fighting particularly fierce near the town of ChasivYar west of Bakhmut and northwest of Avdiivka, and continuing to slowly break through some Ukrainian defensive positions. I must emphasize that the Ukrainian army retreated only 1-3 km from three small villages, and it was by no means a total rout.
Syrsky said that the Russian army "has a significant advantage in forces and means" and is able to make progress in "fierce battles". "In general, the enemy achieved certain tactical successes in local areas, but was unable to gain overall operational superiority," he said. ”
Syrsky also said that Ukrainian brigades, which have just rested, are being rotated in these areas to replace units that have suffered losses. This indirectly confirms the situation in which the Russian army, which I mentioned in yesterday's article, broke into the positions of the Ukrainian army in the northwest region of Avdiivka, seizing the gap between the change of defense and the handover of the Ukrainian army.
On April 28, there were media reports on both sides of Russia and Ukraine that there were white-knuckle battles in the direction of Pokrovsky and Kulakhiv, and the Russian army launched a battalion-scale "human charge" west of Avdiivka and Maryinka, which shows the fierce competition between the two sides.
What is striking is that the Ukrainian Air Force made frequent sorties and violently bombarded the forward positions of the Russian army, but the Russian army ignored the rain of bullets and recklessly infiltrated the positions of the Ukrainian army. The Ukrainian army seems to be more accustomed to giving full play to its equipment advantages and long-range precision strike capabilities, and its tenacious will to fight in close combat is generally inferior to that of the Russian army.
(Ukrainian Air Force bombs Russian positions)
Many media outlets exaggerate the progress made by the Russian army. In fact, in the past two or three weeks, the Russian army has advanced about 7 kilometers in the northwestern salient of Avdiivka in the above-mentioned combat areas, and the Ukrainian army has only retreated 1-3 kilometers in the other two places; on the more than 1,000-kilometer-long contact line between the Russian and Ukrainian armies, the total area of Ukrainian territory occupied by the Russian army in the past month is only about 100 square kilometers, and there is not a single village or town with a population of more than 1,000 people. In fact, this is only a tactical victory for the Russian army, not a major breakthrough in any sense. The Russian army paid extremely heavy losses in personnel and equipment for this.
So far, the Russian army mentioned in my article yesterday has not been able to make further progress in the northwestern salient of Avdiivka, and the Ukrainian army has not been able to encircle and annihilate this lone Russian army. At present, the two sides are engaged in a fierce battle here.
On April 26, the Associated Press quoted two anonymous U.S. military officials as saying that the Ukrainian army had withdrawn U.S.-aided Abrams tanks from the front line because the Russian army's extensive use of drones caused frequent losses to Abrams, and expensive Abrams tanks had to be withdrawn from the front line. On April 28, the 47th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, which is equipped with Abrams tanks, denied the Associated Press report, saying that Abrams performed well on the battlefield and was not damaged by Russian drones, and they will make full use of these advanced equipment to provide fire support for the infantry, and will never hide and not use it.
I didn't quote this news before, but I also think that the Abrams tank has good protection capabilities, and it is impossible to be mortally threatened by Russian drones, let alone abandon it for fear of damage. It seems that even the authoritative Western media often make common-sense mistakes.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency posted on social media on April 28 a video of its special forces using drones to destroy Russia's latest "burdock" radar station, known as the nemesis of drones.
According to public information from the Russian side, the radar station has world-leading technical performance and can detect small air targets, including UAVs, with a detection range of up to 15 kilometers and a detection altitude of up to 5 kilometers. The Ukrainian drone successfully destroyed this "internationally leading" radar station, just like the Ukrainian air defense missile shot down the Russian early warning aircraft, showing that the superior performance of Russian high-tech weapons is all blown, and it is all scum in actual combat.
(Russia's advanced radar station was destroyed by Ukrainian drones)
On the night of April 28, Ukrainian forces attacked Russian air defense systems on the occupied Crimean peninsula using US-supplied ATACMS long-range cluster missiles.
The frequent attacks of the Ukrainian army on the air defense systems of the Russian army on the Crimean peninsula are to create conditions for the recovery of the Crimean peninsula. The first step of the Ukrainian army is to seize air supremacy over the southwest of the Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea near Ukraine, and the second step is to extend the attack on the Russian air defense system on the west bank of the Crimean bridge to create conditions for the destruction of the Crimean bridge.
The US-aided ATACMS long-range cluster missiles are particularly suitable for striking lightly armored targets on the ground such as airfields and air defense systems, while the ATACMS single-warhead missiles and the British-French-aided "Storm Shadow" cruise missiles are suitable for striking and destroying large and solid targets such as the Crimean bridge.
There is another big news today: On April 28, local time, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps revealed in an interview with the media that Italy will join France and the United Kingdom in providing Ukraine with "Storm Shadow", also known as "Scarp EG" cruise missiles.
Like Germany, Italy had a very difficult time sending troops abroad. If Italy supplies Ukraine with Storm Shadow cruise missiles, the pressure on the German government can be imagined. In addition, it is impossible for Italy to send military advisers to Ukraine like Britain and France to limit the targets of cruise missiles to aid Ukraine, and it is not ruled out that the Ukrainian army will use cruise missiles provided by Italy to destroy the Crimean bridge in the future.
(Site of tactical missile attack by the Ukrainian Army)
Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair said on April 28 that Canada would deliver the promised 50 ACSV armored personnel carriers to Ukraine ahead of schedule. Ten vehicles will be delivered as early as this summer, and they will be trained in Germany, and after the training is completed, the equipment will be brought back to Ukraine by trained crews.
Canada's ACSV armored personnel carriers for Ukraine are new equipment with advanced performance among NATO countries, which can better deploy troops to forward positions in the fighting area, or evacuate personnel from the front line, and their reliable protection performance can significantly reduce casualties.
According to the Ukrainian side, more than 130 battles have taken place on the front line in the past 24 hours, and the area west of Avdiivka remains the main battlefield.
On the 796th day of the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that the battle losses of the Russian army (including Russian localities, enterprises, and separatist groups) in the past 24 hours were as follows: 1,320 Russian troops were annihilated (killed and seriously wounded), and a total of 467,500 Russian troops were annihilated; Destroyed 6 tanks, 16 armored vehicles, 2 air defense systems, 1 rocket launch system, 44 tank trucks and logistics heavy-duty vehicles, 3 sets of special equipment (mainly electronic warfare equipment), 31 artillery pieces, intercepted 22 suicide drones.
Since the existence of this battle loss statistics, the highest record of the Ukrainian army destroying the enemy in a single day is 1,380, and the number of enemies destroyed by the Ukrainian army in the past 24 hours has been close to this record.
(Russian army battle losses counted by the Ukrainian side on April 29)
Based on various information, I roughly estimated that the losses of Ukrainian officers and soldiers were about 97,000, of which the number of dead and seriously injured was also 1:1, and more than 20,000 Ukrainian civilians were killed. The warriors of Ukraine who died defending their homeland will return to heaven with glory and be with God.
Let us continue to pray that God will give peace and put an end to wars, that the wicked may be rewarded and the good be sheltered.