In today's summary:
- The Armed Forces of Ukraine are advancing in the Bakhmut direction and may soon take Bakhmut into an operational encirclement;
- The State Duma of the Russian Federation announced that the Wagnerites would no longer participate in the war in Ukraine;
- In Belarus, camps are being built for Prigozhin's mercenaries, but there is no confirmation yet that they have arrived;
- Prisoners recruited by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refuse to fight;
- A restaurant in Kramatorsk, which was hit by Russian missiles, was celebrating a children's party;
- British military intelligence expects serious consequences due to the loss of an Il-22 shot down by the Wagnerites;
- There was a photograph of the minesweeper "Ivan Golubets" in camouflage coloring;
- The American authorities are “closer” to resolving the issue of supplying Ukraine with ATACMS missiles.
The situation at the front
Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar reports on the advancement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Bakhmut direction : 1.5 km towards Kurdyumivka , 1.2 km towards Klescheevka . According to her, the advance in the Berdyansk direction was 1.3 km, and now the Russians are transferring reinforcements there, as well as to the Zaporizhzhya sector , including a marine brigade, from the Kherson direction .
It is reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine actually took control of Kleshcheevka . As Denis Yaroslavsky, commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stated on the air of Radio Liberty, Russian troops are retreating from the northern streets of Bakhmut :
Now we control everything that happens in Bakhmut from the air. Kleshcheevka is a strategic height from where you can inflict defeat, everything is visible from there at a glance, as well as from Berkhovka in the north, for which fighting is now underway. If we take control of Kleshcheevka and Berkhovka, then Bakhmut can be taken into the operational environment.
According to the WarGonzo project of "military officer" Semyon Pegov, near Rabotino (south of Orekhovo ), the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to inflict constant artillery strikes. In some places, forest plantations were “mowed down” by artillery fire to the root. As the authors of the project write, to deliver manpower to the front line, Ukrainians use pickup trucks and, in rare cases, infantry fighting vehicles, which unload personnel and immediately try to return to their original positions. According to the Telegram channel “Two Majors”, there is “one field” left to the northern outskirts of Rabotino .
Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant-General Sergei Naev, called on residents of the Sumy region , who are regularly exposed to Russian shelling, to evacuate from border settlements. The press service of the Joint Forces Command emphasized that in the border areas of the region, it is private houses and civilian institutions that most often suffer.
The State Duma of the Russian Federation announced that the Wagnerites would no longer participate in the war against Ukraine. According to the head of the defense committee Andrei Kartapolov, since Yevgeny Prigozhin refused to sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense, his mercenaries were going to be deprived of funding.
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, also announced that PMC Wagner was ceasing to perform combat missions, noting that it was "the most effective unit of the Russian Federation, which was able to achieve success at any cost."
The project "Belarusian Guyun" calls the information about the inclusion of PMC Wagner in the Belarusian army, as previously reported by the media and Z-channels, a planned disinformation campaign. Mercenary formations, according to the project, have not yet arrived in Belarus , although the transfer may begin in the near future. The question remains open what the mercenaries will do, and this, in turn, depends on what equipment and weapons they will arrive with.
Taking into account the likely transfer of heavy weapons to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, one should not expect a military operation by Wagner PMCs from the territory of Belarus in the near future. Also, "Belarusian Gayun" notes that the Belarusian authorities do not have the opportunity to finance a large number of mercenaries and pay them as much as they received in Russia.
In addition, the project says that field camps are being built near Osipovichi in the Mogilev region . Work is being carried out on the territory of the former military unit No. 61732 in the village of Tsel , where the 465th missile brigade of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus was previously stationed. Two-level bunk beds, toilets are being built, new asphalt has been laid, power lines are being laid, general cleaning of the territory is taking place. The activity is confirmed by satellite images published by Belarus Gayun.
More detailed pictures for June 27 were published by Radio Svaboda. They show that there are repeating objects in the military unit. It can be both tents and equipment. In the largest area of the image, you can see at least 6.5 rows of 20 objects, that is, a total of 130. If these are large tents, then one can have up to 50 people, respectively, the camp can accommodate approximately 6500 people.
It is not yet known who exactly will be located there, and whether it will be at all. By themselves, the construction work and current satellite imagery do not indicate that Prigozhin's mercenaries will be sent there.
Meanwhile, prisoners recruited by the Russian Ministry of Defense from the Storm Z company defeated by Ukrainians recorded a video message in which they stated that they refused to fight because they were not given ammunition, food, they were not taking away the wounded and the corpses of the dead, and they had not been paid the promised money for three months and again want to send to the front.
“Three hundredths were not taken out, two hundredths are still rotting there. Nobody just picks up. Terrible orders are given that should not be followed. In general, we believe that we are simply reset to zero, ” says one of the fighters in the video. According to him, out of 150 people in the company, about 20 remained.
The Freedom Legion of Russia, one of the conditionally “Russian” units fighting on the side of Ukraine, called on Storm Z to join the “resistance movement”.
Mutual shelling and sabotage
The number of victims of a missile attack on a restaurant in Kramatorsk rose to 12 people (including three children), 60 people were injured. This was reported by the State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations. Search and rescue operations have been completed. Three days of mourning has been declared in the city since June 30.
Recall that on June 27, Kramatorsk was hit by a rocket attack that hit a restaurant filled with visitors. Among the victims were three citizens of Colombia , who at the time of "arrival" were having dinner in a cafe with the Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina accompanying them (she is in serious condition).
Z-channels justified the strike by saying that the restaurant was visited by "foreign instructors" and military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also adheres to this version, confirming the missile attack on Kramatorsk . The ministry said that the strike was carried out at the base of the 56th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: a staff meeting was held in the restaurant, two generals, up to 50 officers, as well as up to 20 foreign mercenaries and military advisers were allegedly killed by the missile.
Nick Duckworth, 28, from California, who was at the restaurant, said the establishment had a children's party. According to him, there were also foreign volunteers in the restaurant, who, like him, work for a humanitarian charity. They are engaged in the delivery of aid to civilians in front-line villages.
On the morning of June 29, the Russian military fired at the urban-type settlement of Belozerka in the Kherson region , a woman died. Also, as a result of the shelling, a 20-year-old man suffered a concussion and wounded his face, and a 74-year-old woman. The victim was hospitalized in a state of moderate severity. At least 12 houses were damaged in the village.
There was a video reportedly of the use of JDAM-ER guided bombs or GLSDB launched from the ground at the command and observation post of the 288th separate rifle battalion in Novotroitsky ( here ) and the location of Russian military personnel in the Kievsky district of Donetsk ( here ).
Losses
Photos of abandoned and destroyed T-72AV tanks in the vicinity of the Zherebyanka settlement in the Zaporozhye direction diverge on social networks. On this basis, some Z-channels conclude that the Armed Forces of Ukraine brought into battle another brigade formed for the counteroffensive – the 22nd Motorized Brigade.
In the same direction, the Ukrainians managed, it seems, for the first time in the current counteroffensive, to “trophy” an outwardly serviceable Russian tank. The video with the abandoned T-72B3 was published by the chief sergeant of the 47th mechanized brigade Valery Markus.
British military intelligence believes that the loss of the downed Wagner PMC fighters during the mutiny of the Il-22 air control center will affect the further operations of the Russian military. According to the review, there are no more than 12 such aircraft in the Russian Aerospace Forces, and because of their value, the Russian command uses them only in safe airspace, beyond the reach of Ukrainian air defense systems.
The loss of even one Il-22M, according to the British, in the long run will force a reduction in the number of missions and the level of complexity of the tasks for which such aircraft are used. This will affect the ability of the Russian command to manage and coordinate the actions of military units, especially during periods of intensive operations.
Meanwhile, the Russian media continue to release self-revealing materials explaining where the completely implausible figures of losses in the equipment of the Ukrainian side come from, voiced by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense and personally by President Vladimir Putin.
Izvestia released a report on the operation of the Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters, which tells how the crews of these helicopters are actively destroying the equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the so-called NVO zone. According to the soldiers, Russian equipment works well, there are no problems with navigation. The armament is very accurate – guided missiles always hit the target, and there are practically no misses.
Telegram channel “Tanks. History and Modernity” notes that the guidance system in helicopters of this type is “like on a Soviet black-and-white TV”, so the pilots do not hit targets and shoot at tractors and combines. He also draws attention to the phrase of one of the pilots: “Sometimes they give out coordinates – and it’s not clear what to shoot at, because there is a lot of burned-out equipment,” it turns out that some cars can “knock out” on the second, or even on third time.
Another dubious story was published by RIA Novosti, it tells about the defeat of the Bradley BMP from a closed firing position at a distance of 9.5 km by the T-80BVM tank. According to the same channel “Tanks. History and Modernity”, a BTR-4E shot down more than a month ago was issued for the Bradley BMP in the story (it was hit in the village of Stelmakhovka in the Luhansk region ).
Armaments and military equipment
The first photograph taken from the ground of the minesweeper of the Black Sea Fleet “Ivan Golubets” appeared in a new coloring designed to hide the outlines of the ship (apparently in case of new attacks by Ukrainian sea drones). Earlier, naval researcher H. I. Sutton said that camouflage was applied to the frigates of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation "Admiral Essen" and "Admiral Grigorovich". The British observer believes that the Russians thus want to confuse the operators of maritime drones. The Admiral Grigorovich was given dark camouflage in the bow and stern. Similar false bows and sterns were depicted, for example, on the German battleship Bismarck during World War II.
The Russians continue to practice creating anti-drone nets on armored vehicles – this time the T-72B tank was covered almost completely. It is noted that the structure is welded to the hull, and not to the tower, which, accordingly, greatly limits the angle of rotation of the latter.
The Wall Street Journal reports , citing American, European and Ukrainian sources, that the US authorities are “closer” to the decision to transfer ATACMS ballistic missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers to Kiev. The epic with lobbying for the supply of these missiles has been going on for about a year, and as a result, the first long-range precision-guided weapons of Ukraine delivered from the West were the British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have since been used at logistics hubs, command posts and infrastructure facilities in the Russian rear.
About the main events of the war on June 27 – in the previous report: “The attack on the restaurant in Kramatorsk, the Ukrainians are moving south of Bakhmut. What's happening on the front line .