In today's summary:
- The situation on the flanks of Bakhmut remains difficult for the Russian troops on the defensive;
- The Ukrainian military has established a supply of boats and is entrenched on the left bank of the Dnieper;
- Reports about the withdrawal of the RF Armed Forces to the village of Torskoye in the Liman direction have not yet been confirmed;
- "Voyenkor" hastened to announce the use of American cluster munitions by the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
- One wrecked Bradley IFV was featured on many videos and caused an unhealthy stir among the Z-public;
- The missile attack on Berdyansk, which resulted in the death of General Oleg Tsokov, is overgrown with conspiracy theories;
- The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation counts the weapons and ammunition received from PMC Wagner;
- The Russian military is trying to create decoys at airfields from boxes and sticks.
The situation at the front
The WarGonzo project of "military officer" Semyon Pegov in the daily report notes the assault actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of Rabotino and Verbovoye (south of Orekhovo ), Priyutnoye and Staromayorsky (south of Velikaya Novoselka ), as well as their interception of the initiative in the Berkhovka area (north of Bakhmut ).
The authors of the channel characterize the situation near Rabotino as relatively calm. Both sides adhere to the tactics of gradually knocking the enemy out of their positions. According to WarGonzo, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to occupy forest plantations in small groups, but they are covered by Russian artillery.
The representative of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andrei Kovalev , announced partial success in two directions near Bakhmut : Belaya Gora – Kurdyumovka and Belaya Gora – Andreevka . Kovalyov says that the Ukrainian military is strengthening on the achieved lines.
The GRAY ZONE Telegram channel, close to PMC Wagner, writes that the Ukrainian military managed to gain a foothold on one of the heights east of Orekhovo-Vasilyevka and almost reach the Bakhmut-Slavyansk highway. A little to the south, the Ukrainian Armed Forces made an attempt to enter Berkhovka , but were driven back by Russian artillery fire. On the southern flank of Bakhmut, the situation is practically unchanged, and the dam across the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal, on which the Ukrainian military hoisted the flag earlier, is now in the “gray zone”.
The Telegram channel Rybar, associated with the Russian Ministry of Defense, reports that Ukrainian units are entrenched on the left bank of the Dnieper near the Antonovsky bridge in the Kherson region . Their supply is carried out by fast boats from Kherson and Sadovy . It is reported that divers are attempting to remove minefields. Recall that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and Vladimir Saldo, appointed "head" of the Kherson region, have already reported on the liquidation of the bridgehead of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of Antonovsky bridge .
Geolocated videos do not yet confirm the advance of Russian troops to Torskoye in the Liman direction . The Ukrainian OSINT project DeepState writes that footage from the village shows Russian shelling of the positions of the 23rd separate rifle battalion. According to DeepState, for some reason, the battalion's security officer passed this video off as "destruction of the occupiers" (the video was later deleted). At the same time, "military commander" Vladimir Romanov reports that the Russian military entered the eastern outskirts of Torskoy and began its assault.
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Mutual shelling and sabotage
According to the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the night of July 12, Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed 11 out of 15 kamikaze drones of the Shahed family (aka Geran). The drones were launched from the direction of Kursk .
The Kiev city military administration writes about repelling an air attack on Kiev – all targets have been destroyed. It is noted that kamikaze drones were released around the city after an almost week-long break.
As a result of an attack by an "unidentified enemy flying object" in a residential area of the city of Zaporozhye , 18 people were injured, including six children. The regional military administration (OVA) warns that the wreckage of the facility could be dangerous.
The village of Sofiyivka in the Kherson region was shelled from the Grad MLRS. The head of the local OVA, Alexander Prokudin, reports one dead woman and one wounded man.
The day before, several Russian Z-channels almost simultaneously spread statements about a cluster munition strike on Tokmak ( 1 , 2 , 3 ). There is no photo or video evidence of the shelling yet. VGTRK “voenkor” Yevgeny Poddubny claims that the cluster munitions were “western-made”, but rocket artillery was used. The fact is that the United States plans to transfer cluster artillery shells to Ukraine for conventional 155-mm artillery pieces. Although the old M26 missiles for the M270 and HIMARS MLRS are indeed equipped with a cluster warhead, there have been no statements or documentary evidence of their transfer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Losses
A video of an almost intact Bradley infantry fighting vehicle in the Zaporozhye direction, surrounded by Russian military personnel, has appeared . They "said hello to Pan Zelensky", and also promised to "drive" MT-LB and pick up "this shit".
The video caused quite a stir. Propagandist Margarita Simonyan wrote that she had a desire to close loans and help "the wives, parents of these guys." She also called the military "handsome" and ended her post with the exclamation "atdushi" (author's spelling retained).
BBC Russian Service journalist Ilya Barabanov came up with a rather strange version that in this way the Russian command is trying to distract the public from the death of Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov, and the military in the video are actually actors. The “fakeness” of the video, according to Barabanov, proves that the Russians have phones with which they filmed the video, because the Russian Ministry of Defense prohibits military personnel from carrying any electronic devices capable of distributing audio, photo, video materials and geolocation data. It is worth noting that the ban does not prevent the Russian military from filming many other videos from the contact line.
However, a little later it turned out that this Bradley was by no means truly "unharmed" and was hit by an anti-tank missile system near Rabotino a few days ago, where it has been standing since then. Moreover, ammunition has already been dropped on it from drones, and also attacked with loitering ammunition. It can be assumed that the BMP will "win" more than once, and it will still appear in new videos.
Another video has appeared from the Bradley BMP from the Zaporozhye direction , it is announced that the vehicle was destroyed by an anti-tank guided missile. Objective control, apparently, was carried out from the Orlan-10 drone, the image quality from it leaves much to be desired, so it is impossible to confirm the destruction of the American BMP – however, it is possible that this is one of the vehicles, the footage of the destruction of which was published on Monday, July 10.
Russian "military correspondents", while continuing to work out a new unsuccessful attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, face criticism from their colleagues. In particular, “military commander” Vladimir Romanov scolds “military commander” Andrei Rudenko for passing off the defeat of the Bradley BMP from the Kornet ATGM of the 42nd MSD for the work of artillery of the 58th army.
A video of the defeat of the Russian T-90M tank near Kurdyumovka has been published. First, he was hit by a kamikaze drone, and therefore a thermobaric grenade was dropped on him.
The story of the defeat of the Storm Shadow missile at the command post of the 58th Army in Berdyansk is overgrown with conspiracy details.
Recall that on July 11, a Storm Shadow missile flew into the Berdyansk hotel "Dune" , where the command headquarters of the Russian 58th Army was supposedly located, resulting in the death of Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov. First, Ukrainian sources spoke about his death, then Z-channels, and, finally, the death was confirmed by a member of the State Duma Committee on Defense and ex-commander of the 58th Army, Andrei Gurulev.
It seems to the authors of the well-known Telegram channel “Spy Dossier” that in this way the command of the Russian Federation gets rid of objectionable people, and Major General Ivan Popov was to become the real goal. Tsokov, on the other hand, was "in the wrong place at the wrong time." The "spy dossier" claims that the local military has no doubts that someone "leaked" the coordinates of the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ivan Popov, according to the Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, was allegedly removed from the post of commander of the 58th Army the day before for reporting to Valery Gerasimov on the need for rotation among the units of the association entrusted to him for a long time on the front line (namely, the positions of the 58th army, in particular the 42nd motorized rifle division, have been storming the forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporozhye direction for more than a month). Gerasimov, on the other hand, reportedly got angry and accused Popov of blackmail (because he threatened to go directly to Putin) and panicking. Aleksey Zhivov, the "military commander", also presents the same version.
The situation in this presentation is painfully reminiscent of the events of 1941, when the commander of the Southwestern Front, Colonel-General Mikhail Kirponos, to the last asked for permission to withdraw his troops defending Kiev and under threat of encirclement, but received refusal after refusal from the Headquarters. When Moscow finally gave the go-ahead to withdraw, it was already too late, and Kirponos died in the Kiev Cauldron, along with his headquarters and most of the troops of the front.
In the meantime, the State Duma is going to exhibit the equipment knocked out in Ukraine in Moscow near the embassies of Western countries. The chairman of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, instructed the profile committee to deal with this. The proposal came from a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Vladimir Isakov, who noted that "NATO beasts continue to climb" on Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.
It should be noted that so far, the Russians have not been able to tow a single sample of captured heavy equipment to the rear, and only the Oshkosh M-ATV armored car can be put up to the American embassy from fresh trophies. However, to create a picture with "Leopards" in front of the German Embassy, you can use the many years of experience of the Mosfilm film studio.
The representative of the Eastern grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Sergei Cherevaty, spoke about the attacks on the Kadyrovites. The Akhmat special unit is known to have been redeployed to reinforce the Kleshcheyevka area on Bakhmut's southern flank after a month of mostly unsuccessful attempts to advance in Maryinka . Now, Cherevaty says, Kadyrov's men will most likely focus on what they do best – performing police functions, as well as working as detachments.
In the 53rd mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, they showed the repulsion of another unsuccessful Russian attack with the help of artillery and anti-tank missile systems – it is alleged that the enemy immediately lost 9 infantry fighting vehicles.
The Russians themselves show the consequences of the reckless act of the gunners, who left their self-propelled artillery mount "Hyacinth-S" for the night in position, while they themselves went to spend the night on foot. The next morning, only a part of the barrel and breech of the gun stuck into the ground remained from the car, and an impressive funnel formed in its place (apparently, from the arrival of the HIMARS MLRS rocket).
A video of the destruction of the Russian Buk-M air defense system by the Marines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the 36th Brigade is published .
Armaments and military equipment
A coalition of 11 countries will begin training Ukrainian pilots. This was stated by the Ministers of Defense of Denmark and the Netherlands. The training process will start in Denmark and, in the long term, a center will be established for this purpose in Romania. According to US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Ukraine will receive F-16 fighters from European countries, although it is not specified from which and when.
Norway's new military aid package will include 1,000 miniature Black Hornet UAVs equipped with two cameras, spare parts for NASAMS air defense systems, and army dry rations.
The announced military aid package from Australia includes 30 Bushmaster vehicles.
The UK will provide Ukraine with more than 70 combat and logistics vehicles, thousands of shells for Challenger 2 tanks, as well as £50m for the purchase of repair equipment.
The German edition of Handelsblatt writes , citing sources, that Germany and Poland failed to agree on an armored repair plant. It is reported that the Polish company PGZ lays in the contract unreasonably large costs. However, the German Ministry of Defense officially answers that the final decision has not yet been made.
The New York Times reports that there is a “quiet” discussion in Washington around the provision of ATACMS tactical missiles to Ukraine. The radius of their actions is up to 300 km. European deliveries of Storm Shadow cruise missiles can affect this process both positively and negatively. The ATACMS arsenal is small, and those that exist are designed to repel other threats (for example, in case of an escalation on the Korean Peninsula), and the Pentagon may consider that in general their delivery will not have a significant impact on the battlefield.
RUSI analysts Jack Watling and Justin Bronk have released some interesting material on cluster munitions. In general, they come to the conclusion that such projectiles are much more effective at hitting entrenched manpower than high-explosive fragmentation ones. The article provides statistics that during the Vietnam War, the destruction of one enemy soldier took an average of 13.6 high-explosive fragmentation shells, while cluster shells – only 1.7. Due to the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to use less ammunition, the wear of Ukrainian artillery barrels will decrease, and Western countries will receive the necessary time to increase the production of conventional artillery shells.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation disarms PMC Wagner. According to the agency, more than 2,000 pieces of military equipment were taken from the mercenaries, including hundreds of pieces of heavy weapons, including tanks, MLRS, air defense systems, as well as 20,000 pieces of small arms and more than 2,500 tons of ammunition. It would seem that the answer to the question “Shoigu, Gerasimov, where is the ammunition ?!” obvious – however, it is worth noting that, for example, only one complete package of 16 Uragan MLRS rockets (which are present on the video with the surrendered equipment) weighs 4.5 tons.
At one of the Russian airfields, decoys are being prepared for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and they are assembled from boxes, sticks and old tires. In the photo you can see designs that are extremely remotely reminiscent of the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system and the KAMAZ tilt truck. The Russians can only hope that the intelligence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has the same love for abstractionism as they do, otherwise these decoys are unlikely to attract anyone.
About the main events of the war on July 11 – in the previous report: “The Armed Forces of Ukraine are facing difficulties near Bakhmut, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are counterattacking near Liman. What's going on at the front .
