In today's summary
- The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to put pressure and achieve tactical success on the flanks of Bakhmut
- “Liquidated” by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper was not liquidated
- Russian Aerospace Forces are less likely to use glide bombs
- "Military correspondents" claim that during the attack on Sumy, a kamikaze drone hit the local building of the SBU
- Sergei Shoigu announced the loss of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the counteroffensive of 2.5 thousand weapons
- Ukrainian military install dynamic protection "Contact-1" on German tanks Leopard
- The third Russian tank with the inscription "Happiness is not beyond the mountains" was marked at the front
- French AMX-10s, known as "wheeled tanks", performed poorly during assaults
The situation at the front
Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar reports limited (tactical) successes in the east (9 sq. km were liberated in a week during the “leveling of the front line”) and south (28.4 sq. km were also liberated in a week, in total since the beginning of the offensive – 158.4 sq. km). According to Malyar, Ukrainian troops are conducting offensive operations in the Zaporozhye direction (in the areas of Priyutny , Rabotino , Staromayorsky ) and near Bakhmut and defending in the Avdeevsky , Maryinsky and Limansky directions .
Judging by the geolocated video recordings ( 1 , 2 ), Ukrainian troops did come close to the western outskirts of Berkhovka (north of Bakhmut ) and Kleshcheevka (south of the city). In Russian sources , the record with the use of incendiary ammunition near Bakhmut diverges.
Ukrainian military expert Leonid Dmitriev shared a rather optimistic assessment of the operational situation in the direction of Rabotino especially for The Insider:
“In the area of Rabotino – the place where the support strip and the main defensive line (1st and 2nd lines) converge closest, they are actually completely crushed, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already on the northern outskirts of the village. The fate of the settlement may be decided in the coming days, taking into account the fact that nothing seriously stops the APU in this area. The Russian command has no choice but to withdraw to new positions.
In the event that Rabotino is liberated, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will establish control over the T-0408 road, which will entail a cascade collapse of the Russian defense along the Novoprokopovka-Sladkaya Balka line. In this case, the Russians will have two options: either to immediately retreat to Tokmok without looking back, losing huge territories, or to try to hastily stabilize the front on the northern approaches to Tokmok, incurring huge losses.
Vladimir Saldo, appointed by the Russian authorities as acting “governor” of the Kherson region, wrote on the morning of July 1 in the Telegram channel about the liquidation of the Ukrainian bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper in the area of Antonovsky bridge . According to him, "the soldiers of the special forces carried out a surprise attack from the rear, approaching from the side of the river in boats."
What it actually looked like is known thanks to a video posted by the Ukrainian side (carefully, shocking footage): it shows several Russian servicemen on a civilian boat trying to land on the shore, but they die after dropping ammunition from a copter and the enemy group approaches, without having time to retreat because the outboard motor could not be started.
After the video was widely distributed, a campaign began on pro-Russian Telegram channels and among military correspondents to raise funds for the purchase of boats and boats and / or develop a mechanism for transferring to military units involved in operations in the Dnieper region, watercraft seized from poachers (!) ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ). An urgent gathering was announced at the site of the somewhat forgotten social movement "All-Russian People's Front".
One of the field commanders of the separatists in the Donbass in 2014, and now the well-known Z-figure Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov / Runov) believes that there is no point in eliminating the Ukrainian bridgehead near Oleshky , criticizes the commander of the operation, Colonel-General Oleg Makarevich and wonders : why send manpower and equipment for assaults instead of a massive strike with guided bombs?
A partial answer to this question is given by the representative of the joint press center of the Southern Defense Forces Natalia Gumenyuk. She said that recently the Russians have dropped such bombs on the territory of Ukraine less often: if earlier the bombings were carried out three or four times a day, now this usually happens once a day.
Be that as it may, frontal attacks on the only road that can be shot through and well shot from the right (higher) bank, and even remotely mined, cause bewilderment from other Z-channels ( 1 , 2 ).
According to Russian sources, servicemen of the 7th Airborne Division, the 127th GRU Brigade, the 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade, as well as Storm Z detachments from prisoners recruited by the Russian Defense Ministry, are participating in the operation to eliminate the bridgehead. The day before, the department also reported on the “destruction of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that landed on Antonovsky Island.” In response to this, the well-known Z-channel "Two Majors" posted the following (either mocking, or desperate) post :
“Some bastard deceives Konashenkov’s department and gives beautiful information. The guys from the field say that heavy fighting continues near the Antonovsky bridge. Probably, somewhere in the chain of information transfer to Moscow there was a failure.
As for the bridgehead itself on the left bank of the Dnieper (to be completely accurate, then on Antonovsky Island in the floodplain of the river adjacent to the left bank), as of the morning and first half of the day on July 3, fighting continued there.
Mutual shelling and sabotage
According to the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the night of July 2, Ukraine was attacked by eight kamikaze drones of the Shahed family (aka Geran) and three Caliber cruise missiles. UAV launches were made from the southeast direction . All targets are reported to have been hit.
On the night of July 3, launches of "Shaheds" were again noted . A total of 17 kamikaze drones were launched, of which 13 were shot down. The rest, according to official information, did not reach their goals.
On the morning of July 3 , Sumy was attacked by Shaheds. The regional military administration reported four drones, and the Attorney General's Office reported three. As a result, two apartment buildings and one office building were damaged. One person died and at least 16 were injured.
Russian "military correspondents" present their version of what happened. According to them, one of the kamikaze drones hit the building of the Sumy department of the SBU when a meeting of high-ranking officers was allegedly held there.
In the Krasnodar Territory, near the city of Primorsko-Akhtarsk , the explosion left behind a crater measuring 30 meters in diameter and 4 meters deep. Some Z-channels suggested that, before reaching the target, a Soviet-made Tu-141 Strizh UAV exploded near the village, which the Ukrainian forces had repeatedly used as a kind of projectile aircraft. Others thought that it could be the S-200 anti-aircraft missile or the Grom-2 OTRK, indicating that the drone could not leave behind a funnel of such dimensions. The target was probably a nearby military airfield.
A drone was shot down near the village of Borki in the Belgorod region . It is also reported about "arrivals" in the village of Kukuevka , there is destruction.
The Rybar Telegram channel associated with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation writes about the shelling of the Donetsk agglomeration. 24 damaged transformer substations are reported in Yelenovka . In addition, hits are noted in the building of a school, a kindergarten, as well as a regular bus "Volnovakha – Donetsk". One person died. In addition, Donetsk, Makeevka, Aleksandrovka and Gorlovka were shelled.
The Russian occupation administration of the Kherson region announced the resumption of traffic on the Chongar bridge . On 22 June it was damaged by a Storm Shadow missile. "Rybar" writes that the work was completed ahead of schedule, but the Russian side should not relax, because the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to hit the supply routes of the RF Armed Forces from the Crimea .
Losses
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke at a conference call and gave another batch of implausibly high numbers of Ukrainian losses during the counteroffensive. According to him, since June 4, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost about 2.5 thousand (!) units of various weapons, including 920 units of armored vehicles (including 16 Leopard tanks). Shoigu separately noted that almost 100% of the Leopards transferred by Canada and Portugal were lost (although, as far as is known , Canada sent only eight Leopard 2A4s, and Portugal three Leopard 2A6s).
A video of a damaged Leopard 2A6 has surfaced. Judging by earlier videos in June, the tank was likely hit by an artillery shell, after which its external tank caught fire.
A video was also published showing the evacuation by Ukrainian military personnel on an armored recovery vehicle Bergepanzer 2 of M2A2 Bradley ODS-SA infantry fighting vehicles lined near Malaya Tokmachka . It is worth recalling that back on June 13, the Russian Ministry of Defense published a video filmed by the Russian military next to the lost American vehicles, however, it seems that the Russians did not succeed in evacuating them.
The Facebook account of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine publishes a video of the defeat of four Russian self-propelled guns "Msta-S" at once. Author of the Telegram channel “Tanks. History and modernity. Btvt.info "draws far-reaching conclusions from it: self-propelled artillery has shown itself to be extremely vulnerable, therefore, in the current war, seemingly hopelessly outdated towed guns are more likely to" disguise and shoot.
The video showed the defeat of the Russian Tor-M2 air defense system, as well as the 9T244 transport-loading vehicle. It is reported that the strike was carried out using the HIMARS MLRS near the village of Burchak in the Zaporozhye region .
A video was published on the social networks of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which indirectly indicates the involvement of the American Patriot complex in the events that took place in the Bryansk region on May 13, 2023.
Recall that at that time four aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces were shot down in the sky over the region: Su-34 and Su-35 fighters and two Mi-8 MTPR-1 helicopters. At least 11 crew members are known to have died.
An interesting assessment of the losses in the "People's Militia" of the "DPR" is published by one of the Z-channels. According to the posted information, in 2022, there were 2.3-2.4 injured per person killed, while in 2023 – 3.5. The increase in the survival rate of personnel is associated with the fact that the wounded military began to be taken out on a planned basis to hospitals on the internationally recognized territory of the Russian Federation, whereas earlier this could be achieved only with certain connections in the command. Whether these statistics include those mobilized who were transferred to the “DPR” units for “meat assaults”, but often formally continued to be registered in their old units, is unknown.
Armaments and military equipment
Remarkable photos and videos showing a German Leopard 2A4 tank (probably handed over to the Ukrainians by Canada) with Kontakt-1 dynamic protection units installed indicate that Western equipment is being adapted to the conditions of hostilities in Ukraine. It is worth noting separately that the footage does not show the same tank, whose photo not so long ago gave rise to memes about dynamic protection, since it has remote sensing units in the frontal part of the hull. It turns out that at least two Leopard 2A4s were modified in this way.
Euronews published an interview with a Ukrainian military officer who talks about the combat qualities of the French AMX-10 wheeled cannon reconnaissance and fire vehicle, which is also called a “light tank” or “wheeled tank”. According to him, because of the thin armor, this vehicle is better used as a means of fire support (especially since a good weapon and fire control system allow this), and not directly on the battlefield.
The interlocutor of journalists cites the case when an artillery shell that exploded near the AMX-10 caused the detonation of ammunition and the death of a crew of four. In addition, the machine is equipped with an unreliable gearbox that can jam at a crucial moment. At the same time, the same Ukrainian military praises the American Oshkosh armored vehicles and the British Husky, which protect the crew even better than the “wheeled tank”. Earlier, the Ukrainian resource DeepState also, according to the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, spoke about the unsuitability of the AMX-10RC for “frontal assaults”, while comparing its cannon with a sniper rifle.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius promises to send dozens of Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine soon.
In the special economic zone "Alabuga" in Tatarstan, kamikaze drones "Shahed" will be produced using Iranian technology. This has already been discussed in the White House, and now the Protocol publication and the RVZRT YouTube channel have published an investigation explaining the details of the project. If now Shahedas are assembled from Iranian components, then in two or three years it is planned to establish a domestic production process, in which most of the spare parts will be produced in the Russian Federation. The total cost of the project is estimated at 115-130 billion rubles.
Photos of a new batch of Su-30SM2 multirole fighters have been published . What distinguishes them from the previous model is that the imported equipment that was previously installed on them has been replaced with Russian. The replacement of the Thales HUD 3022 (CTH 3022) HUD (indicators on the background of the windshield) with the domestic HUD of the IKSH-1KI-1 type is noted.
Another (at least the third) Russian tank was spotted with the inscription "Happiness is not beyond the mountains." Most likely, this is a T-72B3 from a new batch made in 2022. The author of the Russian Telegram channel "Panzerwaffle / Panzerwaffle" suggests that, perhaps, the crew of the new tank has friends of the tankers from the first two or they were transplanted into a new car. The first such tank was seen in April 2022 in Mariupol, and the second one was destroyed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine a few weeks later. It is worth recalling that there was an art object on the embankment in Perm – an inscription of three-dimensional letters "Happiness is not far off." In 2018, street artist Alexei Ilkaev replaced it with "Death is not far off." Perhaps Russian tankers should have found another source of inspiration.
Shown is the latest development from the Russian military in the NVO zone – Gradomet. In fact, this is a copy of the Soviet Grad-P installation of the 1965 model, which is a tube into which a rocket is loaded from the Grad MLRS, after which a single shot is fired. It is reported that it can be used to launch ammunition that was rejected at the factory and cannot be used in "large" Grad installations.
About the main events of the war on June 30 – in the previous report: “They are trying to dislodge the landing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the bridgehead near the Antonovsky Bridge, the Russian troops received shells of 1939. What's going on at the front .
