Mostly towards Donetsk
"It is doctrine that a Field General in Command is never let near an active theatre of operations (battlefield for laypeople).
The task of that goes to the Second in Command, aka the Chief of Staff, aka my sorry ****.
So, I go and observe with eyeball mark 2.0 and report back "home" to her.
Hell
Vuhledar was as deadly as Bakhmut, the fighting was though different in how it occured, but the endless meatwaves and tank battles have created a true hellscape.
Today I visited Avdivka, it is the other end of the line that saved Ukraine, together with Kharkiv up North.
Bakhmut was ever just a side show, albeit a very deadly one.
Avdivka is far worse than either of them.
Since February of 2022 more people have died here than in Bakhmut and Vuhledar combined.
But, the fighting here has been ongoing since 2014, more or less nonstop.
6000 Ukrainian soldiers died here from 2014 to February 2022, that is 60 percent of the Ukrainian losses during this time.
Approximately 30 000 Russians died here during that time, and around 80 000 Russians have died here since February.
Almost none of them have been buried, so the ground is littered by around 100 000 corpses on the ground, in abandoned trenches, or just put in bags and chucked over the trench tops.
This is what we have detonated mines in, churned up with artillery and the tracks of tanks and combat vehicles.
There is just no way to deal with it on an individual level, so we are using bulldozer blades after running them over with mine clearing equipment.
All we can do is to pile them up with mechanical equipment, anything else and we would lose troops due to sickness and mental issues.
The mounds will later become sanctified memorials...
I will not be more graphical.
I have seen things...
Spartak
We are moving in on Spartak slowly under constant fire.
The first row of houses is no more, so we have started with the second row.
And we have run out of pure military targets by now.
The place is pretty much deserted by now, so there are no civilians to mind any longer.
We might take Spartak in the end, but it is still only listed as something on the menu.
Airport
We have the airport under fire control and are now demolishing whatever is left after 9 years of war.
The Russians are trying to hold it for some reason that is a bit beyond us, we suspect they have arms and soldiers in tunnels under the place.
This is also currently on the menu.
The Quadrant
This is the area inside of the lake systems (dams really), it is an area roughly 40km of mostly open fields and water.
We have that under fire control from the North, West and South.
There is only a 4km opening towards Donetsk that we are not holding, so that is the only way in and out.
We have it under direct observation and drones are milling about ready to either attack or to relay target data to the artillery.
Dashing through is impossible for the Russians without dying or being injured.
What is important to understand here is that we have it under total fire control from 3 sides, and we are using both long range and short range artillery on all 3 sides.
From either side we can tap out to the other side, firing on them from behind.
This is made possible by Western artillery having a much longer range than the Russian artillery.
Yesterday Russia ordered units from the trapped brigades to retake Opytne.
Note that these are broken troops that have been defeated once, and then been under constant shelling for days.
Still they came milling straight into dug in Ukrainian stormtroopers, CV90s and Tanks.
They never stood a chance.
As they retreated we opened fire from the other side near Pisky, meaning that the heavy artillery fire came from the side they tried to escape too.
Half of the fleeing Russians died outright, the other half was all wounded.
To our surprise we then intercepted radio transmissions where the troops blamed their own artillery for firing on them, the could just not grasp the range difference.
Yes, it is theoretically possible that a few shells was indeed fired by the Russians in panic, but the bulk of it was definitely ours.
It then got more bizarre.
Mordvichev, the Russian general in charge of Ukraine detonated.
He ordered the officers in charge arrested pending trial.
Note here that Russians normally do not mind a few killed by friendly fire, but this was on such a scale that even the Russian generals thought it was to much.
Mordvichev is famous for trialling people with a machine gun, so the lack of officers in Russia most likely increased somewhat.
In all of this madness we sent in tanks and CVs as darkness fell, and we crossed rather gingerly into the Quadrant from all 3 sides.
The 10th formerly tanked Brigade are professional soldiers, so normally they would surrender.
But, the DPR troops are totally convinced that they will be shot by the Ukrainians on sight, so they are basically holding the 10th under threat of shoting them if they give up.
And no, the Ukrainians would not kill them.
But, all of their officers are going up on treason charges, and so will at least some of the DPR soldiers.
These are all Ukrainian traitors and Quislings, and will be treated as such, but definitely not killed.
We have even been very picky with what commanders are sent in, and they have been very strictly ordered to not get "creative".
Also, having a few Swedish observers around that are embedded helps.
I am not about to take any chances, neither is Tank Girl.
The war is after all about being the better part.
Pisky direction
The units from the 2nd TAG is now on the outskirt on their side after very hard fighting.
They will not move on from now, they will just conduct holding operations and not back.
Any counter-attacks will be met head on and they are busy digging in.
We will need this area held later on.
Pavlivka
The Russians are sending wave after wave to retake Novomaior'ske and the fighting here is as bad as it has been in any place during the offensive.
But the Cossacks are dealing with it like champs, stepping back when needed, retaking ground, holding.
This means that the entire village is a greyzone currently, but leaning towards our side.
Over at Novodonet'ske the Russians are hanging on with their toenails and sending in reinforcements constantly to replenish the fallen troops.
The Novo's are pretty much completely levelled to the ground with the fighting being done between rubble piles and remnants of basements.
The artillery will though soon carry the day.
Pavlivka
Last evening I ordered up 8 GRAD Launchers and ordered them to fire an entire salvo on Pavivka to shorten the battle, and save lives of our troops prior to the upcoming storming.
Not sure about the result I ordered them to reload and do it again.
A little bit later Tank Girl got up just after 0000 and she traipsed out unto the map and asked:
"Where the **** did Pavlivka go?"
"GRADs"
"I knew you would learn to love them"
I now fully understand why they are useful and why she clings on to them.
We are still firing so hard that Russia can't even send in reinforcements, and with a little bit more of the same and it is time for the bridging equipment to go in.
Another general over to the west.
His first Combined Arms Tactic Assault was to the West of Robotyne to take a hill and roll up Russian defences.
He came flying at it like a bat out of hell, the Azovs jumped into the trenches with the tanks just behind firing on anything that looked threatening while the Bradley's milled about firing at anything moving.
He had been very strict and told them that he would throttle anyone in a vehicle that stopped moving, this probably made it quite interesting for the soldiers in the Bradley's as they jumped in and out to deal with infantry related threats...
Over milled drones targeting artillery and tank fire, while dropping bombs on concentrations of Russians in the trenches.
After a couple of hours they had achieved their set goal and stopped.
Yes, there was a couple of small mistakes made, but for a complete noob on it he made one heck of a job of it and learned a few things.
After some Borstj and a cup of tea he decided to do it again directly to the South with the other Unit.
This defence line has held for more than a week now, resisting any attacks.
This time he corrected his mistakes and moved even faster and had the tanks move around faster, and the coordination was improved.
He is a bright and fast b***r at learning.
Anyway, I am happy that he confused the **** out of the Russians.
All he now needs to do is rinse and repeat with the units he has, and build a couple of more, and then combine them into larger manouvres.
Anyway, I am just sitting here now pushing home the current attacks, Tank Girl will get to do the fun stuff in an hour when she wakes up.
And I need a shower desperately, I did not have time to shower before my stint at the helm, I have certain pong of Aux de Russienn du Fricassé.
And I am rambling."
