Ukrainian forces have spent over a month-and-a-half searching for weak spots in Russia’s defensive positions in Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson amid Kiev’s counteroffensive.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has released drone and bodycam footage showing Russian forces using man-portable thermobaric, rocket-assisted grenade launchers against an entrenched Ukrainian Army position in the Krasny Liman direction in northern Donetsk.
The footage shows Russian assault troops moving rapidly through the trenches, aiming their RPO-A Shmel single-use thermobaric rocket launchers at enemy positions and firing. Bird’s eye view drone footage shows the launchers’ powerful thermobaric rounds exploding in dense forest, much of it decimated after heavy fighting in the area.
The Defense Ministry told Sputnik that assault troops armed with Shmel rocket launchers and LPO-97 43mm pump action grenade launchers were deployed in the area, getting as close to an enemy stronghold as possible and pummeling it until its destruction after it was spotted by reconnaissance drone operators.
“We had a task in the Kremensk forests, where a machinegun point was identified, and the infantry couldn’t get through; they called us, we finished it off,” an assault unit commander going by the call sign Zhiga said.
Thermobaric weapons, also known as vacuum bombs, spray a combustible substance over an area and ignite it, resulting in oxygen from the surrounding air being sucked up and generating a high-temperature explosion. In the Shmel’s case, the explosion is deadly to any personnel in a 50 meter radius in open areas, and 80 cubic meters in an enclosed space. The US military has estimated that the RPO-A Shmel’s warhead has the same amount of power as a 107 mm artillery shell upon impact.
Along with the RPO-A, the Shmel has Z and D modifications (incendiary and smoke, respectively). The Shmel was first deployed to effect by Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, when it was dubbed the "Satan Pipe" by the CIA-backed Mujahedeen militias.
The RPO-A Shmel is used by more than a dozen nations, including Russia and other countries in the former Soviet space, plus Serbia, India, Vietnam, and North Korea.
Ukrainian Casualties During Offensive Amount to Over 350 Soldiers in Past Day - Russian MoD
The Ukrainian armed forces lost more than 350 soldiers over the past 24 hours during offensive attempts, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday, adding that 11 Ukrainian attacks have been repelled.
According to the ministry, the Ukrainian military continued to make attempts to attack in Donetsk and Krasny Liman directions.
"Enemy losses amounted to over 160 Ukrainian servicemen [in the Donetsk direction], one tank, two vehicles, a Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery mount, a UK-made FH-70 howitzer, and a Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer. An ammunition depot of the 110th mechanized brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine was destroyed near the settlement of Avdeyevka in the Donetsk People's Republic,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Russian forces repelled five attacks in Liman direction and six attacks in Donetsk direction, according to the ministry.
"Enemy losses [in the Liman direction] amounted to 195 Ukrainian servicemen, four infantry fighting vehicles, four armored fighting vehicles, three pickup trucks, two Gvozdika self-propelled artillery mounts, as well as D-20 and D-30 howitzers," the ministry said.
Moreover, the ministry said that Ukraine lost 120 soldiers in South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions in the past 24 hours.
The ministry also said that Russian air defense forces have shot down 35 Ukrainian drones and intercepted one HIMARS long-range guided missile in Donbas, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions over past 24 hours.
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