Kiev has thrown one of its best-equipped and trained units into battle, with the Russian military confirming Tuesday that forces near Rabotino in Zaporozhye region had repelled three attacks by assault units from Ukraine’s 82nd Air Assault Brigade, with 200 Ukrainian troops reportedly killed and five tanks, eight armored and infantry fighting vehicles and two Msta-B howitzers destroyed.
US business media said that the brigade, which spent most of the past two-and-a-half months held in reserve as Ukraine’s military attempted to mount its counteroffensive, had finally been deployed, characterizing the development as both “good and bad news” for Kiev.
Equipped with depleted uranium shell-armed Challenger 2 tanks, the 82nd Brigade is also armed with Marder and Stryker armored vehicles – among the most modern NATO equipment delivered to Kiev among the bloc’s tens of billions of dollars in “aid.”
The 82nd Brigade is said to be among “the last major units” available to Ukrainian command. Its deployment “could significantly boost” Ukrainian forces’ firepower in the short term, but when the 82nd and its sister 46thAir Assault Brigade are pulled back, “there might not be any equally powerful fresh brigades to fill in for them,” which means “the counteroffensive could lose momentum,” the report warned.
Poster Comment:
Ukraine last week pulled 4 brigades of Marines who were protecting Odessa. They are running out of trained reserves. They have been kidnapping men off the streets and giving them 3 weeks training. They have taken soldiers recovering from wounds and sent them to he frontlines. One man was still in hospital and was sent to the front because his men needed a commander. When he got to the front, quite a few of his men were wounded. The Ukrainian military refused to evacuate his freshly wounded men so he called up the Russians and surrendered to save their lives.
Col Doug Macgregor was sent info from US military spy satellites. The Ukraine has dug graves for 400,000 military personnel.
The Russians are counter attacking. At two points on the Donbass the Russians are near a break through where they can send 100,000 men through who had been held in reserve so they can flank and cut off the entire Ukrainian army on the Donbass front.
The Russian border is 40 kms from Kharkov. To the east of Kharkov in Sumy district which the Russians have been probing. They could cut off Sumy's rail network and electrical grid which would darken and threaten Kharkov and the northern Donbass. The northern end of the Donbass is due west from Kharkov.