The Ukraine conflict has confirmed the importance of drones in modern warfare. These tiny and relatively cheap vehicles can cause a lot of grief – not to mention deal a lot of damage – to the enemy, and when a skilled drone operator comes into play, things can become very unpleasant very quickly.
The following video shows how a Russian drone methodically bombards Ukrainian troops hiding in covered positions, with one of the munitions lobbed by the UAV sliding right into the entrance to a dugout where Kiev regime militants were trying to take shelter.
Their shelter destroyed, the few surviving Ukrainian militants can be seen pulling themselves from under the debris and scurrying away.
Russia launches large-scale attack on Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities
The Russian military has launched a large-scale missile attack against Ukraine’s military industry, disrupting production of weaponry and munitions, the Defense Ministry said on Monday.
“Tonight, the Russian Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a group missile attack with long-range precision weapons, air and sea based, on the military-industrial complex of Ukraine,” the ministry said during its daily media briefing, adding that “all assigned targets were hit.”
While the Russian military did not specify which locations had been targeted exactly, Ukrainian media reported strikes in Kiev, Sumy and Dnepropetrovsk regions. The latter has apparently experienced the worst, with a massive explosion reported on the outskirts of the city of Pavlograd.
Unverified footage circulating online shows the aftermath of the strikes near the city. The attack apparently also caused a massive secondary explosion, followed by multiple lesser blasts. Available footage shows numerous columns of white smoke at the location, typically caused by the detonation of solid-fuel projectiles such as anti-aircraft missiles.
The Pavlograd strike destroyed the stockpiles of fuel and ammunition of Ukraine’s 46th Airborne Brigade, which has been readying itself for the much-hyped looming Ukrainian counteroffensive, Vladimir Rogov, a senior Russian official in Zaporozhye Region, has claimed, citing the reports of locals. The strikes also destroyed two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries stationed in the area, the official told news agency TASS.
According to Ukrainian emergency services, the explosions in Pavlograd damaged and destroyed up to 80 residential homes and about two dozen multi-story buildings. Emergency services have also acknowledged damage to an unspecified “industrial facility” in the area without revealing its exact nature.
In recent days, both Russia and Ukraine have seemingly ramped up long-range attacks against each other, with the uptick in military activities coming ahead of the long-advertised Ukrainian counteroffensive. Moscow has claimed the destruction of several command posts used by the Ukrainian military, and has reported striking groupings of Ukrainian reserves. Kiev’ for its part, has ramped up shelling of residential areas of Russia’s city of Donetsk, as well as other border regions, inflicting multiple civilian casualties.
Ukrainian forces also carried out an attack on an oil deport in Crimea, with the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military’s southern command, Natalya Gumenyuk, confirming the strike came in preparation for Kiev’s counteroffensive.
(LIGHT VERSION of Yuriy Podolyaka's video)
PMC "Wagner" continue to crush the garrison of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Artyomovsk and squeezed it into the most western quarters, and in the meantime everyone is waiting for the main battle of the campaign, and indeed the whole war, which should break out from week to week.
Russia's attack on Pavlograd deprives Ukrainian brigades of resources for advance
Three brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces, whose redeployment to the Zaporozhye area completed on April 30, will not be able to shift to active combat actions due to loss of ammunition and fuel stores in Pavlograd as a result of Russia’s attack, chairman of the We Are Together with Russia movement Vladimir Rogov told TASS on Monday.
"Redeployment has been completed, with all three brigades at the Orekhov section of the contact line. Part of them have arrived at the settlement of Shcherbaki," he said.
"I think that considering the fact that the 46th brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces was refitted in Pavlograd, with the main reserves of fuel products and supplies being there, they will most likely face logistics problems with supply of all required for combat actions now. It will take another several days, or probably weeks to prepare, at least 2-3 days depending on how strong the attack on stores in Pavlograd was, whether heavy enough stocks of the Ukrainian armed forces’ reserves were destroyed," Rogov explained.
He said late on Sunday that the Russian forces had carried out strikes on railroad infrastructure and depots for ammunition and fuel in Pavlograd, which Ukrainian troops had been accumulating for an offensive toward Zaporozhye.
Rogov told TASS earlier that the Ukrainian army command redeployed the 46th airborne assault brigade, as well as the 116th and 118th brigades to the Zaporozhye area in addition to 12,000 fighters already on the line of engagement near Gulyaipole and Orekhov. According to his assessment, should an offensive be launched in this area, Ukrainian units would avoid fighting in the cities and instead attempt break through to the Sea of Azov east of Melitopol to cut the land corridor to Crimea.
Air defense forces down drone in Crimea’s west — governor
A drone has been shot down in the west of Crimea, the republic’s governor Sergey Aksyonov wrote on his Telegram channel on Monday.
"A drone was downed by air defense forces in Crimea’s west," he said.
Aksyonov said in an interview with TASS in December the Ukrainian drones remained a threat to the region.
The Russian troops have destroyed up to 330 Ukrainian soldiers, a tank, four armored combat vehicles, four cars, and a 122-mm howitzer D-30 in the Donetsk direction over the past 24 hours
"Over the past day, the aviation carried out six combat sorties in this area. The group's artillery performed 64 fire tasks … up to 330 Ukrainian soldiers, one tank, four armored fighting vehicles, four cars, and the D-30 howitzer were destroyed in this direction," the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The defense department added that an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian armed forces has been eliminated near the village of Novoukrainka in the Donetsk People's Republic.
