#Donetsk Axis Update - #Ukrainian GenStaff indirectly acknowledged that Novotoshkivs’ke was captured by #Russians by stating Orikhove was under attack. Orikhove can only be accessed through Novotoshkivs’ke. Also ack’ed was an ongoing assault on the town of Nyzhnie.
In #Popasna, #Russia did not take any new ground but likely controls around half of the city. 🇺🇦 also stated that 🇷🇺 is reinforcing this assault with manpower and heavy weapons to complete the capture of the city. Source: m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…
Also in #Popasna today, video was released showing significant destruction from shelling to include shrapnel peppered residential doors. Two people were killed by #Russian shelling in the city yesterday after artillery rounds hit a residential building. aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022/…
#Donetsk Axis Update - #Russia attempted assaults on both #Novomykhailivka and #Marinka. #Ukrainian troops repelled the assaults on both cities. #Russian troops continue to shell both cities as they try to soften defenses prior to more attacks.
#Ukraine ack'ed that #Russia launched an unsuccessful attack on #Vremivka, UA, which is adjacent to Velyka Novosilka. There was no mention of the village of Neskuchne to the S, which RU must have crossed to attack Vremka. It is likely that Neskuchne is now under RU control.
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Update - 9 days ago, for reasons unknown to us, Twitter shadow banned the @AggregateOsint account. We took a 72 hour pause as a last ditch effort to shake the ban before taking more drastic measures. The ban appears to have been lifted. Here is a thread on what we experienced.🧵
First off, posting this may result in a new shadow ban. We are posting this as a PSA for others who find themselves in this mysterious & undefined Twitter grey zone. We spent many hours trying to determine what had gone wrong and how to fix it. Maybe this post can help others.
Shadow banning is the practice of limiting the reach or visibility of posts, comments and activity of an account without the owner's knowledge. Twitter claims it does not shadow ban, but this is a semantics argument that relies on manipulating the definition of the phrase itself.
Let's take a look at the topography of #Severodonetsk and examine the role it is playing in the battle for the city.
#Severodonetsk is flanked to the SW by hills running along the Donets River that are between 300-500 feet higher than the city as shown in the topo map below. 🧵
This offers a series of advantages to whoever holds the hills. Some of those assets are: Observation, better cover, excellent firing positions, ability to fire from defilade, and one of the most important assets in this battle, the ability to observe and adjust artillery fire.
#Ukrainian troops have been using the hills along the Donets to shield their artillery from observation & fire behind the cover and concealment of the hillside. This is also known as firing from defilade. Essentially, using the trajectory of a round to hit an unobservable target.
#Lyman Axis - #Russian forces have likely already captured or are in the process of capturing Svyatohirs'k, after the bridge SE to the Donets River was destroyed, This cut off all supplies or reinforcements. Bridge destruction was confirmed via video below.
#NASA#FIRMS 24 hour data shows huge fires in Svyatohirsk & Bohorodychne, especially when considering the cities small size. This indicates that some type of shelling or other explosive discharges are very concentrated on these two cities. This is likely #RuAF artillery fire.
Video clearly shows the Monastery on the #Ukrainian controlled side across the river from Svyatohirsk that has dropped its last section into the water. The #UAF needed this bridge to keep a resistance in the city supplied and reinforced. It is now lost.
#Severodonetsk - #Ukraine suffered a major setback to its counterattack in the last day & has been pushed back into the industrial zone in the W of the city. #Russian forces have advanced forward of previous lines but a blistering artillery barrage from both sides is underway.
#NASA FIRMS 24 hours data shows that huge sections of the city were on fire today, which is an indicator of shelling or explosives. The shelling appears to be from #Ukraine & #Russian directed at both forward units and resupply and command control areas of the opposite side.
This artillery barrage is creating a zone between the line of contact that is essentially occupied by neither side at the moment because any soldier who is spotted in that zone is immediately hit with a massive barrage. We have updated our map to indicate the unoccupied zone.
#Ukrainian forces reportedly shot down a #Russian SU-25 near Orikhiv Оріхів in #Zaporizhzhya Oblast. The plane burns as it hurtles through the air until it crashes into the ground. #Ukrainians can be heard celebrating.
Here is a second longer video of the same hit. It shows the fireball when the plane hits the ground.
As has been discussed at length, initial reports were incorrect and this was almost certainly a Ukrainian MIG-29. Photos at the scene of the crash and reports from reliable UAF sources have confirmed this. Initially this was reported by reliable sources as an RUAF SU-25.
The #UnitedStates has released details concerning the new $700 million military aid package to #Ukraine. The package includes:
-Four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and ammo (# or type not specified)
-Five counter-artillery radars
-Two air surveillance radars
-6,000 antiarmor weapons
-15,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery
-Four Mi-17 helicopters
-15 tactical vehicles
-Spare parts and equipment. More: 👇 cnbc.com/amp/2022/06/01…