(…continued from Part 2…)

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That the Ukrainian UAV-raids on the Russian air bases, on 1 June, were ‘rather resembling the Doolitle Raid’, than anything like 'Russia’s Pearl Harbour’ (as many have claimed) is even more obvious considering different other developments of the last week.

Primary between these were the resignation of General Drapaty, commander of the Ground Forces ZSU; the other the Russian break-through in direction of Pokrovsk. But, as usually, lets start with the start…

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Kursk

Previous Russian gains were confirmed and new gains of 3-4 km further west occurred. Russia also advanced a kilometer near Guyevo.

A Russian airstrike on Oleksiivka.

A battalion of the 414th drone regiment operates in the Kursk sector. Magyar says that for every 5-6,000 targets they attack, only ten rocket launchers are destroyed and they rarely are hit with the full load of rockets on them.

A drone destroys a Ukrainian border checkpoint that provides just enough protection for the police officer inside.

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Kharkiv

Kharkiv is 25 km from the front lines but a Russian FPV drone with the RPG warhead made an attack in the city.

Ukrainian drones attack Russians trying to cross the wasteland in Vovchansk. Six kilometers east of Vovchansk, a damaged bridge was attacked by an airstrike that did not hit it directly. A Ukrainian soldier was walking nearby.

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Terny

Russia managed to make it to the western end of Ridkodub to wave a flag. They advanced about a kilometer west of Nove.

Two winged-reconnaissance drones went down behind enemy lines in this sector so the 63rd Brigade sent a bomber drone to both sites and lowered a mechanical claw to grasp the reconnaissance drones and bring them back to safety.

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Chasiv Yar

The 56th Motorized Brigade north of Chasiv Yar needs two excavators and a transport vehicle for them so they can dig positions for self-propelled artillery just like the Russians do. Drones now outrange artillery and these positions increase the survivability of guns on both sides.

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Toretsk

A Ukrainian in northern Druzhba surrenders to a drone. Nearby, a Russian walks up to a dugout and throws an explosive inside.

The Russians take control of Romanikva. They also took control of Staro Mikolaivko only to partially lose control of it later, based on Russian artillery fire. Despite a very heavy rocket bombardment, Russia did not advance any closer to Zoria to close that half of the cauldron’s exit. Ukraine managed to withdraw from the most exposed positions. Russia advanced northeast of Novoolenivka.

Rubicon posts multiple attacks on vehicles, infantry, sensors, drones and positions. This was exclusively in the Novospaske/Shcherbynivka area. Rubicon is a top tier drone unit but Russian infantry did not advance in this area against the Azov brigade. The international battalion of the Azov brigade conducted their first operation in this area.

Russian drones controlled by fiber optics have been sitting on roads waiting for Ukrainian vehicles to drive by. Since they do not use power when they are sitting there and do not send any radio waves that would lead to their detection, they can wait in ambush for a long time. 93rd Brigade drones patrolling the road can spot them, though, and FPV drones and bomber drones that drop munitions have been used to attack the waiting Russian drones.

The 14th UAV Regiment engaged three air defense systems and a truck with passengers in one operation.

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Pokrovsk

Russians were attacked moving into Malynivka, then posted a flag on the western end of this village. They may have lost control of it later: in this regards, the situaiton remains ‘unclear’. Russia consolidated its control of Yelyzavetivka but failed to make any gains elsewhere in the sector.

A Russian report that all three battalions of a brigade went out on a mission and none of their relatives have heard from them since.

***

A member of the 414th Regiment, ZSU, narrates a series of drone attacks. It starts out with attacks on a self-propelled gun. Sometimes it takes multiple drones to destroy a vehicle. They were flying another drone to finish off a vehicle when it exploded while they were still five kilometers away. They didn’t want to waste a drone so they flew around for a while and attacked a cargo van.

They found a self-propelled gun with rugs and other items hung over the barrel to try and disguise it, especially from giving off a thermal signature at night. But the vehicle was spotted and the drone knocked a hole in the barrel.

A drone was flying to a target when a running infantryman was spotted. Maybe the Russian thought the drone was coming for him, but the motion attracted attention and the drone diverted from its mission to attack the soldier.

A different infantryman had survived an attack but was probably deaf from the explosion. When a second drone came for him, he didn’t hear or react to it when it was only a few meters away.

Four vehicles were found in a hangar 42 km away. That is about the limit of how far an FPV drone is supposed to be able to fly, given how much energy is in the batteries, the weight of the batteries, the weight of the fiber optic cable, and the weight of the warhead. After surveying the vehicles, the drone went after the open hatch of the tank, which was the most valuable target. It was too far away to send another drone to determine the damage to the tank.

The next four attacks were on infantry targets.

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Avdiivka

Fairly accurate artillery fire lands on a treeline west of Oleksiivka. Western Oleksiivka was also bombarded a couple of times. Russia managed to advance 2 km to secure Troitske and the fighting in Bahatyr is still fierce but Ukraine managed to hold everywhere else.

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Komar

Komar was hit by several Russian air strikes.

Voskresenke was hit by a Russian airstrike, as was the eastern edge of Maliivka.

Vilne Pole was bombarded by Russian rockets.

With drone support in Zelene Pole and Novopil, Russian forces made small advances. 3-5 km east of the two villages, eight Russian vehicles are destroyed.

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Zaporizhzhia

Two weeks ago, Ukraine used drones to strike a train that was 50 km away. Then the 414th uses a fiber optic drone to attack a target 42 km away. Now the 65th Brigade used radio-controlled drones to attack targets 35-40 km away. Since 40 km is the approximate range limit of drones without wings, carrier drones that drop FPV drones off were probably used and radio relay drones also assisted in extending the range of radio-controlled drones. It was recently reported that in the Zaporizhzhia sector they have to search for armored targets further away from the front lines because they can’t find any close to the front.

The Russians are also focusing on targets that are 30-40 km away because protective trenches and vehicular EW systems are less common at those ranges.

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Black Sea

A Russian jet-powered drone was shot down over the Black Sea near Odesa.

***

(…to be continued…)

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This text is published with the permission of the author. First published here.