Russian servicemen of the Western Military District’s railway troops have activated the special Volga armored train, which is used to clear and restore the railway in the area of a special military operation in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released a video showing the Volga armored train of the Western Military District operating in the area of special military operation.
The armored train crew performs technical reconnaissance and mine clearance, and also restores destroyed tracks.
In addition, the task of the special train is to escort military trains.
Recently, an enemy drone carrying a suspicious load was spotted 200–300 meters from the train. An anti-aircraft gunner quickly shot it down, as the armored train is heavily armed. Its main weapon is a twin 23mm anti-aircraft gun. There are two of these on the Volga. They can engage both air and ground targets, including armored vehicles.
Armored wagons are equipped with the latest weapons and shelters for firing. The personnel are able to operate in the most challenging conditions. The armored train is also monitored from the sky: a drone crew conducts aerial reconnaissance and monitoring of the surrounding environment in the area
Russia must protect its new regions from danger — Kremlin spokesman
The reconstruction of the DPR, the LPR, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions is already underway, but this is the least that Russia can do for them; the most important thing is to shield these territories from danger, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday at a meeting with New Media Workshop trainees.
"The reconstruction process is underway, but this is the tiniest fraction of what the country can do for its new regions. The maximum that the country is obliged to do is to shield the new regions from danger," the New Media Workshop's Telegram channel quotes Peskov as saying.
He stressed that the special military operation "will continue until the victorious end."
About what was being done in terms of reconstruction in the new regions, Peskov said: "Tens of thousands of people are working there. Tremendous efforts are being exerted." The residents of Lugansk, he said, "can see for themselves every day new roads repaired and built, and infrastructure created."
Ukrainians question why they are fighting in Donbass town – Bild
Many Ukrainian soldiers are not convinced the town of Artyomovsk – which they call Bakhmut – is worth clinging to, as Russian forces are advancing street by street, the German outlet Bild reported on Wednesday.
“Bakhmut is hell,” wrote freelance journalist Jan Humin, who visited the town last week and wrote about one 28-year-old soldier who was badly injured. The armored ambulance refused to start, so the soldier from western Ukraine had to be evacuated by a jeep on a dirt road, dodging Russian artillery fire.
“The positive energy that surprises you everywhere in Ukraine, even when things are going badly, cannot be felt in Bakhmut,” Humin added. “Few soldiers feel like talking; while the sound of constant impacts is heard, they sit still and wait for what is to come.”
The Russians are “slowly but surely winning” the seven-month battle for the town, with only two roads still connecting the “almost surrounded” Artyomovsk to the Ukrainian rear, according to Humin. The Russians are advancing street by street and “it seems only a matter of time” before they capture the town completely.
“The mood among the military is tense, focused, and worried. Many wonder what they are fighting for in Bakhmut. Is it really still worth defending this devastated city against the repeated attacks of the Russian armed forces,” the Bild correspondent added.
Russia’s interest in taking Artyomovsk is a matter of public record. The town is the linchpin of the Ukrainian army’s entire position in the Donbass, and taking it would allow further advance deep into Ukrainian-held territory, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last month. Up the road from Artyomovsk lies Slavyansk, where the Donetsk People’s Republic rebellion against the US-backed coup government in Kiev began in 2014.
The Wagner Group private military company has taken point in the storming of Artyomovsk, enveloping the town to the north and the south while also fighting street by street, building by building, to take the urban area. On April 2, Wagner fighters captured the city administration building. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has claimed the fighting in Artyomovsk has “almost destroyed the Ukrainian army.”
The fighting has continued, however, as the government in Kiev has continued to funnel men, ammunition and supplies into the shrinking salient. President Vladimir Zelensky has vowed to hold the town at all cost, even as his Western backers have warned that such efforts were depleting the forces intended for Ukraine’s “great spring counteroffensive.”
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