I just spent some time in various parts of the vast front surrounding Severodonetsk, where Russian troops are massed in an effort to capture the last major city in Luhansk held by Ukrainian defenders.
My latest dispatch for Rolling Stone is here: rollingstone.com/culture/cultur…
My latest dispatch for Rolling Stone is here: rollingstone.com/culture/cultur…
The outline of the situation is familiar to those following the war: Russian forces possess local superiority of numbers againstUkrainian troops. While some analysts assert Russia is using overwhelming firepower to more accurately target defenders, the evidence shows otherwise.
What I witnessed was sheer volume of munitions being unleashed against the Ukrainians, their defensive positions & the urban areas they are defending.
Here is a screengrab from a drone video shared with me by the reconnaissance unit I accompanied on the Lyman front:
Here is a screengrab from a drone video shared with me by the reconnaissance unit I accompanied on the Lyman front:
The soldiers I was with are some of the most highly trained and capable in the Ukrainian military: a reconnaissance company for an air assault brigade.
They are easily able to identify and locate Russian units. But their lack of artillery means they can do nothing about it.
They are easily able to identify and locate Russian units. But their lack of artillery means they can do nothing about it.
For example, multiple Russian vehicles massed at an intersection, within Ukrainian artillery range – if they had the assets to employ:
Russian troops dismounted and moving in the open, again within range of Ukrainian artillery, if they had adequate munitions and weapons systems:
Ukraine is losing upwards of 100 KIA per day, according to President Zelensky. One of his advisers, @Podolyak_M, suggested recently this number may be as high as 200 per day.
WIA numbers are perhaps five times that, officials suggested.
WIA numbers are perhaps five times that, officials suggested.
Ukraine has rushed all available units into the fight in the East – including a number of poorly trained Territorial Defense Force brigades and volunteer units.
I spent time with one of the volunteer units being rushed to the front, and it was an alarming experience. Through no fault of their own, they were being sent into battle with minimal equipment and a lack of even basic training.
There was simply no time to provide these volunteers with adequate training. They were tasked to defend open terrain & assault urban areas.
No dispersion, walking on ridgelines, mistaking concealment for cover: a total lack of awareness of the fundamentals of infantry tactics.
No dispersion, walking on ridgelines, mistaking concealment for cover: a total lack of awareness of the fundamentals of infantry tactics.
Most of them were terrified, and certain that they would die.
They still went into battle.
No serious observer can doubt the Ukrainian will to fight.
But to hold the line, Ukrainian soldiers need advanced weapons, training... and time.
All of these are in short supply.
They still went into battle.
No serious observer can doubt the Ukrainian will to fight.
But to hold the line, Ukrainian soldiers need advanced weapons, training... and time.
All of these are in short supply.
Last anecdote to add:
Back in Dnipro, I am standing near a café talking on my phone when a Ukrainian soldier runs up to me: he’s heard me speaking English and asks if I am American.
I tell him I am.
Back in Dnipro, I am standing near a café talking on my phone when a Ukrainian soldier runs up to me: he’s heard me speaking English and asks if I am American.
I tell him I am.
The soldier, whose uniform markings identify him as a member of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, is in his early twenties.
He’s lean, clean shaven and pumped up with excitement. He rips the velcro trident patch off the right arm of his uniform and thrusts it into my hand.
He’s lean, clean shaven and pumped up with excitement. He rips the velcro trident patch off the right arm of his uniform and thrusts it into my hand.
“America gave me new body armor and a medical kit. Take this. I want to give it to you as thanks to your country for doing that, for everything it has done for us. I’m going back to Severodonetsk tomorrow to destroy our enemies.”
The patch he gives me is the blue trident of the Ukrainian ground forces.
As I was researching historical volumes of artillery fire to report on my story from the Eastern theatre of war, I did some rough math.
Ukrainian troops in Donbas are experiencing artillery bombardments comparable to the Western Front during World War I.
rollingstone.com/culture/cultur…
Ukrainian troops in Donbas are experiencing artillery bombardments comparable to the Western Front during World War I.
rollingstone.com/culture/cultur…
I base this claim on the number of munitions fired by the British during the week-long pre-attack artillery bombardment in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, which I have compared to Ukrainian estimates of the number of shells fired daily by the Russians in Donbas.
As a modern 152mm HE-Frag shell far outweighs (88lbs) the munitions used in a British WWI-era QF 18-pounder (18.5lbs) or even a QF 4.5-inch gun (35lbs), I have compared total tonnages over a seven-day period (16,968 tons in the Somme, 18,518 tons in Donbas).
There is a reason that satellite pictures from the battlefront in Donbas...
...remind me of aerial photos taken of No Man's Land near Ypres in 1916.
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