3.11.2024 – Translated from Ukrainian via Google and OFP
Russian occupiers have stated that Ukrainian kamikaze drones attacked several regions of Russia on the night of November 3. According to the Russian Defense Ministry’s cover story, 19 unmanned aerial vehicles were allegedly destroyed by the air defense systems on duty.
Rostov, Volgograd and Belgorod regions were hit, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
The terrorist agency, in its usual manner, stated that the “Kiev regime” attempted to carry out a “terrorist attack” using an aircraft-type UAV against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The occupiers claim that 16 UAVs were allegedly shot down over the territory of the Rostov region, two over the territory of the Belgorod region, and one over the territory of the Volgograd region.
Rostov Region Governor Vasily Golubev complained that explosions occurred in Novoshakhtinsk, Kamensk and the Ust-Donetsk region. The official claims that there are no casualties or damage on the ground.
Let us recall that Russia complained about another attack by Ukrainian drones. This time, on the night of November 1, an oil depot in the Stavropol Territory of the Russian Federation came under attack by the Defense Forces.
Earlier it was reported that on the morning of October 29, a UAV attack occurred on the territory of the Russian University of Special Forces in Gudermes, Chechnya. According to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, the UAV hit the roof of an empty building on the territory of the educational center, which led to a fire.
As reported by OBOZ.UA, on the night of October 27, there were also complaints in the Russian Federation about a UAV attack; a fire occurred in the area of the Michurinsky Oil Refinery in the Tambov Region. A total of 11 drones were recorded in the region.
“The official claims that there are no casualties or damage on the ground.”
This means that there are casualties and damage was done.
Ukraine ‘Achilles’ Battalion Commander Issues Warning About Western Drones
Just one Ukrainian drone battalion the “Achilles,” which specializes in uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes by Kyiv’s 92nd Assault Brigade—uses on average 3,000 first person-view drones a month. But they are not opting for some Western-made weapons, or the most sophisticated drones, simply because they cannot do the job.
“The best examples of weapons,” such as systems like the GPS-guided Excalibur artillery shells, don’t work “at all,” Rustam Nurgudin, the executive officer of the battalion, told a briefing of defense companies and journalists in London.
“The best drones can’t fly,” he said.
Drones have defined the more than two and a half years of war in Ukraine, the cycle for updating the designs as short as little over a month. Kyiv’s domestic industry is pumping out drones, and Ukrainian officials say the war-torn country is able to produce millions of drones each year. Kyiv also has a new branch to its military dedicated exclusively to drone warfare.
The problem, Kyiv officials stress, is funding. Ukraine’s capability far outstrips the money being funneled into the more than 250 companies involved in drone production, said Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s former strategic industries minister who is overseeing Kyiv’s defense industry.
“It’s so frustrating, it’s so embarrassing, to be capable, but not to have enough resources” for the defense industry, Kamyshin, now a presidential adviser on strategic affairs with a focus on the military-industrial complex, told Newsweek in Kyiv in mid-September.
But also tossed into the mix is electronic warfare, and its ability to confuse, throw off and shut down navigation systems on weapons flying across the battlefield each day.
Although Ukraine’s international backers have donated their own drones and many types of weapons to the war effort, experts say the vast majority of these are ill-suited to the constantly evolving front lines snaking through eastern Ukraine and along the border with Russia.
Some Western-made drones struggle to cut through dense electronic warfare systems on the battlefield. Another factor is cost—Kyiv burns through drones, meaning they cannot be expensive.
Among NATO countries and their militaries, “nobody understands what’s going on,” Nurgudin said. There is still a misunderstanding of what “up-to-date” war looks like, heavily informed by fighting in wars like Afghanistan and Iraq, he added.
The UAV battalion was first deployed around Kharkiv, before heading for the Donetsk city of Bakhmut, which Russia has controlled for around a year and a half. The soldiers were then sent back to Kharkiv to fight around the city of Kupiansk, Nurgudin said.
Moscow’s forces had taken control of Kruhliakivka, near Kupiansk, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s military has not acknowledged that the settlement had been taken.
Fighting has blazed in Kharkiv since the early days of the full-scale war, and swathes of the northeastern Ukrainian region were captured by Russia in 2022 before a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive peeled back Moscow’s grip on much of the region.
The front lines in Kharkiv have been relatively static in the roughly two years since, although Moscow launched a cross-border push into pockets of northern Kharkiv earlier this year.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said on Saturday that Russia had not made any confirmed advances on the chunk of front line sweeping down from east of Kupiansk to west of Russian-controlled Svatove and Kreminna, cities in the eastern Luhansk region.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday it had captured Pershotravneve, a village west of Svatove.
Whether Russia advances Kupiansk depends on how many shells Ukraine has in stock to load into its artillery systems, whether it has enough anti-aircraft systems to go after Russian jets and how many fighters end up in the area, he said.
“We don’t know how many, for instance, North Korean soldiers will appear unexpectedly in front of us,” Nurgudin said.
Ukrainian, South Korean and Western intelligence have said in recent weeks that North Korea was sending between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers to Russia to bolster Moscow’s war effort against Kyiv.
The U.S. said on Thursday that around 8,000 were stationed on the border with Ukraine. “We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said during a joint press conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and South Korea’s Foreign and Defense Ministers, Cho Tae-yul, and Kim Yong-hyun.
[From Newsweek via MSN]
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-achilles-battalion-commander-issues-warning-about-western-drones/ar-AA1tqSsF
“Among NATO countries and their militaries, “nobody understands what’s going on,”
NATO has shown its true colors in this war. Representatives should be going into Ukraine and work together with the people and military there, so that better and more effective weapons can be designed and built. But, they send nearly worthless stuff. I hope that the Ukrainians can at least disassemble those things and reuse them in their own drones.
I’ve heard about the Excalibur being basically ineffective a long time ago already. I think it was last year when I first heard about it.
Ukraine Official Accuses Google Maps of Giving Away Military Positions
Google Maps has published updated imagery showing the location of unspecified Ukrainian military systems, with the technology giant “working to rectify the situation,” a Kyiv official has said, as forces try to fend off fierce Russian attacks and slow gains, heading into the winter season.
Russia is “actively dispersing” images highlighting Ukraine’s military equipment, Andriy Kovalenko, an official heading the disinformation branch of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a post to messaging app Telegram on Sunday.
Kovalenko did not say which equipment featured in the images, nor the approximate location of the systems. Representatives for Google reached out to the Ukrainian authorities and “said that they are already working to rectify the situation with the images of our military systems,” Kovalenko said in a later statement.
Newsweek has reached out to Google for comment via email.
Andrii Ziuz, the former chief executive of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and current head of technology at London-based company Prevail, suggested to Newsweek on Sunday that the impact of updated images would only have a limited impact on Ukraine’s armed forces.
These images would only show stationary objects, such as manufacturing plants and training camps, added Ivan Stupak, a former officer in Kyiv’s SBU security service.
“The front line is constantly changing, so Google Maps are not useful,” Stupak told Newsweek.
Satellite imagery has been routinely used throughout the more than two and a half years of full-scale war, both by the militaries clashing in the conflict and external analysts watching the conflict. It has been used to assess damage to targets after missile or drone strikes, but can typically be only of limited use for planning and launching strikes on targets that can be moved quickly.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s top soldier, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Ukraine was “holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives” since February 2022.
Fierce clashes are expected to continue throughout the winter fast approaching in the war-torn country, as Russia forges on with slow but steady gains in Ukraine’s embattled east.
It has claimed a slew of villages in recent months, with battles blazing east of regional hub, Pokrovsk. The Kremlin has also pushed westward of Bakhmut, the devastated Donetsk city Russia captured in May 2023, and poured resources into seizing Toretsk, southwest of Bakhmut.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday its forces had captured Vishnevoye, a village southeast of Pokrovsk and west of Selydove, which Moscow said it had seized last week.
The Kremlin said on Saturday it had taken control of Kurakhivka, a village close to Vishnevoye. Kurakhivka sits immediately west of Oleksandropil, which Russia claimed around a week ago.
Newsweek could not independently verify battlefield reports.
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-google-images-maps-military-positions-andriy-kovalenko-1979264
Thanks again, Larry.
However, I doubt that Google Maps is a useful tool for anyone on the battlefield. There are better ways to get visual info.
I don’t know the resolution of russia’s satellites as compared with what Google uses. And if “better ways” refers to surveillance drones, they probably can’t cover all of Ukraine, while satellites can.
Although ruskie equipment is often not the best, I’d wager to say that their spy satellites make better pictures than the Google ones.