In today's summary:
- The Armed Forces of Ukraine “cleanse” the left bank of the Dnieper with artillery, and the Russian Aerospace Forces strike at the islands in the river delta;
- The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation casts doubt on the extension of the “grain deal” due to the attack on Sevastopol by Ukrainian naval drones;
- Quadcopters with cameras and without identification marks are found in the Moscow region;
- Attack on Kupyansk: two people were killed, ten were injured;
- The newest Russian tanks T-14 "Armata" reached the front;
- The Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School graduates cadets ahead of schedule.
The situation at the front
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are “cleansing” the left (controlled by Russian forces) bank of the Dnieper. This was reported by the representative of the operational command "South" Natalia Gumenyuk. As far as one can understand, we are talking about “counter-battery combat” (that is, about the defeat of enemy artillery with our own artillery), and not about the physical presence of Ukrainian military personnel on the left bank.
At the same time, videos of airstrikes on islands in the Dnieper Delta are being circulated on pro-Russian Telegram channels. Russian Marines are reportedly identifying targets, handing them over to pilots, and aviation is delivering pinpoint strikes.
Bild journalist Julian Röpke continues to follow the movement of pro-Russian forces in the center of Bakhmut, noting that the geolocation of the fighting confirms Russian territorial gains west of the railway junction in Bakhmut.
The network has probably the first video of the use of "smart" American JDAM bombs, which are equipped with a targeting system. The blow was inflicted on one of the areas of Bakhmut occupied by Russian forces.
Recently, the Estonian Defense Minister said that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was being delayed due to the weather. As if to confirm this, a video has been published showing a Ukrainian tank pulling a lightly armored MT-LB tractor along a completely washed out, dirt-covered dirt road.
Mutual shelling
The Russian Defense Ministry accused the Ukrainian side of attacking the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol with unmanned sea boats using a "humanitarian corridor" intended for the export of grain from Ukraine. According to the Russian military, attacks on the port in Sevastopol were carried out on March 23 and April 24.
In October 2022, Ukraine already carried out a sea drone attack on the port of Sevastopol. Several ships were then hit. They did not receive serious damage, but this attack revealed a gap in the defense and the ineffectiveness of the old defensive structures.
Now, as satellite images show, the defense of Sevastopol has been significantly strengthened, including fighting dolphins. Naval News writes about this, which specializes in naval topics. The port is patrolled by boats and helicopters, and satellite images show that the entrance to the port of Sevastopol is now protected by six rows of physical defensive barriers.
Sevastopol is the main naval base of the Russian Navy in the Crimea. Although attempts have been made to disperse the ships to other bases, most of the ships remain there. Therefore, this base is a key target for Ukraine, especially in the face of any planned counter-offensive.
The Russian Defense Ministry threatened that it might not extend the grain deal because of the attacks on Sevastopol. “The terrorist actions of the Kiev regime jeopardize the next extension of the “grain deal” after May 18 of this year,” the statement says .
Izvestia reported that on April 25, Ukrainian servicemen fired on "peaceful territories of the Zaporozhye region" from the HIMARS MLRS. The blows were inflicted on the city of Tokmak. According to these data, as a result of the shelling, a gas station at the entrance to the city, two private residential buildings, a gas pipeline and power grid facilities were destroyed. According to preliminary information, two civilians were injured.
Russian troops attacked the center of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region with S-300 missiles. One of the rockets hit the museum of local lore, destroying it almost completely. Two employees of the museum were killed, 10 more people were injured.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the strike, saying that "the responsibility of all those responsible for these war crimes will definitely be, and will be ruthless."
“The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely: our history, our culture, our people, killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods. We have no right to forget about it even for a second. We must and will respond,” Zelensky wrote on social networks.
Meanwhile, three crashed quadrocopters with cameras and no markings were found in different parts of the Moscow region. One of them was found near the crash site of a Ukrainian drone, which was found on April 23 in the Bogorodsky urban district near the Zarya gardening partnership. All drones sent for examination. It is established to whom they belong and for what purpose they were launched, they said in the Russian power structures.
Losses
About 200 graves of Wagner PMC fighters were found at the Gusinobrodsky cemetery in Novosibirsk. According to Sibir.Realii, local residents sent a video with hundreds of graves. This video was also published by Taiga.Info and several local Telegram channels.
Based on the information on the tombstones, the mercenaries died between November 2022 and January 2023. You can establish their belonging to the Wagner PMC by wreaths with the image of a yellow star and a black cross – this is one of the symbols of the Wagnerites.
The Telegram channel “Love Novosibirsk” reports that the namesakes of the buried were convicted under articles for drug trafficking, murder, attempted murder and theft. Most of the dead come from the Novosibirsk region. Also, residents of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kuzbass and Tuva can be buried in this cemetery. There were no burials in this part of the cemetery on satellite images of previous years.
Meanwhile, it became known that the companies of Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin earned record amounts on contracts with the Ministry of Defense during the year of the war. This is reported by the project "We can explain", having read the financial statements of the company.
Most of all, the Radius company, which supplies food for the needs of the RF Ministry of Defense, managed to earn 672 million rubles (against 294 million a year earlier). The profits of another company that operates in the military food market, called Main Line, also increased. She earned more than 618 million rubles (against 295 million in 2021). The Megaline company, which is engaged in the construction of military camps for the Ministry of Defense, at the end of 2022 made a profit of 411 million rubles (against 257 million in 2021). According to We Can Explain, Prigozhin’s companies earned 4.7 billion rubles in 2022 compared to 1.9 billion in 2021.
In March 2023, it became known how Prigozhin’s business empire works, which includes the “troll factory”, the Concord group of companies, Wagner PMC and other projects of the Kremlin chef. At the disposal of journalists were more than 1 million documents of Prigozhin’s structures, access to which was gained by hackers in early autumn 2022.
It became known from the documents that all Prigozhin’s structures are connected with each other: wounded Wagner soldiers come to their senses at a recreation center in Gelendzhik, Defense Ministry officials receive discount cards to the Eliseevsky store, “trolls” sit in a building built by Prigozhin’s companies and promote services from there PMC Wagner to an international audience.
Pro-Russian channels report that a Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft was shot down in the Kherson direction and publish a video.
The attack aircraft was shot down from MANPADS, the plane crashed near the village of Vetlyanskoye, west of Kherson, near the Borshchevka River: a large fire broke out on the spot, characteristic of a collapsed attack aircraft, Telegram channels note.
Armaments and military equipment
Russian troops began to use the latest T-14 Armata tanks, RIA Novosti reports . The tanks are said to be firing at Ukrainian positions, but have not yet taken part in the assault. Ukrainian resources note that up to 5 T-14 units were seen a week ago when moving from Belgorod towards Kremennaya.
For our part, we note that even if the T-14s really (so far) only provide artillery support to the Russian troops, then any other self-propelled guns or tanks, including the obsolete T-55 and T-62, could perform such tasks. This may indicate both a lack of artillery at the front and fears associated with the use of an unfinished tank in battle (recall that the T-90M also turned out to be not invulnerable ).
Israeli military expert David Gendelman, in a conversation with The Insider, noted that the reasons for this use of tanks are the lack of large-scale offensive operations and the emphasis on the work of artillery.
“We have been seeing reports from the Ukrainian-Russian front for a long time that tanks are being used for firing from closed positions, instead of artillery pieces. Although the tank itself allows such use, in principle the tank as a combat vehicle is not intended for this, and the resource of the tank gun barrel also suffers additionally from this. The reasons for this use of tanks is the lack of large-scale offensive operations, and mainly positional tactics, where the main emphasis is on artillery, and where it is not enough, tanks are also used. Therefore, if the Armata is also used in this capacity, then it simply becomes on a par with all the other tanks used in this capacity.
If "Armata" really appeared at the front after a year's absence, it only means that this small available number of "Armata" finally decided to be tested in combat conditions. But the very nature of the application is the same as that of other tanks, there is nothing new or surprising in this regard.
Early graduation of cadets in Russia
The Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School (DVOKU) in Blagoveshchensk will graduate cadets this year at the end of April, which is almost three months earlier than usual. The reasons for the reduction in training time are not explained. At the same time, Vyacheslav Kuzyakin, deputy head of the DVOKU for educational and scientific work, said that in each graduation work, cadets consider the experience of a “special operation”.
The school graduates future platoon commanders of motorized rifle, mountain and arctic units, as well as marines, ensigns who have been trained under the program of secondary vocational education, and foreign officers studying under a special program.
About the main events of the war on April 24 – in the previous report: “The “bridgehead” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper, the son of Peskov in the Wagner PMC, Ukrainian UAVs flew to the Moscow region. What is happening on the front line.
About the main events of the war on April 24 – in the previous report: "Bridgehead" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper, Peskov's son in the Wagner PMC, Ukrainian UAVs flew to the Moscow region. What's happening on the front line .