"Great commanders" and hundreds of dead Russian marines
On the evening of November 6, it became known about the plight of the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet. The soldiers stationed near Pavlovka (a village in the Maryinsky district of the Donetsk region of Ukraine) in the Ugledar direction handed over to the governor of Primorye a letter with complaints about the command and with a request to send a commission to the place to stop the poorly planned and unprepared attack on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The full text of this letter was published in the Gray Zone Telegram channel associated with PMC Wagner. The Russian military wrote that during the 4 days of the offensive, the 155th brigade lost 300 people killed, wounded and missing, and also lost 50% of its equipment. Here is a snippet from that document:
“Once again, we were thrown into an incomprehensible offensive by General Muradov and his corefan countryman Akhmedov in order for Muradov to earn bonuses over Gerasimov, and Muradov promised Akhmedov a hero of Russia. As a result, we and the marines of Kamchatka are advancing on Pavlovka. As a result of the "carefully" planned offensive by the "great generals", we lost about 300 people in 4 days killed, wounded and missing. 50 percent technology. This is just our team. <…>
How long will mediocrities like Muradov and Akhmedov plan military actions for the sake of their reports and receiving awards at the cost of the lives of so many people. They don't care about anything just to show themselves. They call people meat."
Today (November 7), the governor of Primorsky Krai acknowledged the losses in the marine brigade during the "hard attack" on Ugledar, however, he said that the data on the loss of 300 people were "significantly exaggerated" (while on the eve he managed to say that information about the losses could be " stuffing of the Ukrainian special services”).
A few hours later, the Ministry of Defense officially announced: the losses of the marines of the 155th brigade “due to the competent actions of the commanders” do not exceed 1% of the combat strength. Here is a quote from the ministry's official statement:
“For more than 10 days, units of the 155th Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet have been conducting effective offensive operations in the Uludar direction. Due to the competent actions of the commanders of the units, the losses of the Marines over this period do not exceed 1% of the combat strength and 7% of the wounded, a significant part of which have already returned to duty.
At the same time, enemy losses along the line of combat contact of the brigade average 7 to 1, and in some areas 9 to 1 in people and equipment .
After this statement, reminiscent of the rhetoric of paid bloggers who compared the percentage of mobilized Russians with one marmalade from a package , the Gray Zone channel showed footage of the destruction of the Russian army with the eloquent caption "1%":
Another similar video, filmed by UAF drones, was published by military analyst Yigal Levin.
“And this is how the defeat of the 155th Marine Brigade of the Russian Navy from the drones of the 72nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine looks like. The invaders climbed into the minefield, and then they were polished with artillery, ” the video description says.
The Gray Zone channel drew attention to the implausibility of the version of the Ministry of Defense:
“The commanders are actually literate, even so much that they were able to change almost everything reinforced concrete statistics of combined arms battles, when the attacker suffers 3 times more losses than the defender (and this is normal), and in our country the defending enemy suffers 7-9 times more losses than the attacker .
Indignant reports about the losses of the Marines and optimistic statements by the Ministry of Defense were published not only by the “Wagnerites ”, but also by other Z-channels (for example, the channel of the pro-Russian blogger Anastasia Kashevarova with more than 200 thousand subscribers or the Military Informant Z -channel with more than 500 thousand subscribers ):
Mobilization complicates Ukrainian counteroffensive
Despite reports of riots of discontented mobilized , despite information about the destruction of them by whole battalions , despite news about special camps where those who refuse to fight are sent, finally, despite the forecasts of experts who said that mobilization will not help Putin change the course of hostilities, reality showed that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had partially slowed down. Here is how military expert Sergei Grabsky explained it to The Insider:
Mobilized Russians can play the role of viscous material that delays the Ukrainian army. The mobilized are not yet fully equipped with equipment and weapons. There is a mass, but it is not capable of any offensive actions in the near future. Therefore, now the task of this mass is to stop or delay the advance of the Ukrainian troops, but now they are not doing very well with this task due to the fact that there is a certain parity of forces in artillery, for example, in the Kherson direction.
But defending and being extras in the trench is still easier. Ukraine does not have enough artillery to carry out massive strikes. It is simply physically impossible to ensure the level of fire damage with the available means, so the presence of more people in the trenches slows down the advance. This mass of Russian troops, which is being transferred, and this is up to 30 battalion tactical groups, forces Ukrainian troops to push into this defense and get stuck in it. They are mowed down, mowed down, but there are simply too many of them. The processing of this mass requires serious efforts, so the intensity is high. Plus they are defensive.
Note : Today, according to Putin, about 80,000 mobilized citizens are in the zone of the so-called special military operation, of which about 50,000 are taking part in hostilities.
Arms supplies to Ukraine
On November 7, Ukraine received the latest NASAMS and Aspide anti-aircraft missile systems (SAMs) as military assistance, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said :
“This weapon will significantly strengthen the Ukrainian army and make our skies safer. We will continue to shoot down enemy targets attacking us. Thanks to our partners: Norway, Spain and the USA.”
NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System) is a Norwegian-American medium-range anti-aircraft missile system (up to 50 km) capable of shooting down helicopters, drones, aircraft and cruise missiles.
Here is how military expert Leonid Dmitriev commented on these deliveries in a conversation with The Insider:
Everything that can shoot down flying targets is important to Ukraine now. Any systems in any quantity are needed to protect the army and civilian infrastructure from shelling, so they don’t look a donated NASAMS in the mouth. After the war, it will be necessary to revise the entire range of air defense systems, because such a number of different systems complicates logistics and introduces confusion, creates difficulties in servicing and training crews. But now it doesn't matter. If there were not dozens of NASAMS in the world, but hundreds and thousands, it would be better, but for now you have to mess with Aspide, but all of them are critical every day.
Meanwhile, on the page of the Ukrainian TV presenter and volunteer Serhiy Prytula, a video of the work of the “people’s Bayraktars”, bought with donations to his foundation, appeared:
See also The Insider’s military report for November 4: “Fights for Svatovo, Bakhmut under fire, mobilized people are used to slow down the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the right bank of the Dnieper. What is happening on the front line.