By Aleksandr Kots
[KP] Communication with the front line is now sporadic. Guys don't have time to talk. But when a free minute is issued, acquaintances talk about how things are progressing in the most difficult section of the Zaporozhye direction.
A voice message sent back on June 8 did not reach me until Saturday. In it, a comrade talks about how Russian troops fought off the first onslaught of the enemy.
- The heat is specific. The neighbors also had an attempt to break through, they went there to correct it. The bastards approached our positions at 100 meters. Can you imagine 12 hours of combat? Three hours of artillery preparation, when you simply cannot raise your head. The night was fun. But, thank God, they survived. Not without loss. But we also burned six of their cars. Three "Bradley", "Leopard" did the second.
Two more minesweepers were going - theirs too. Those who were blown up by a mine were already finished off with ATGMs. Now it’s not a rod, they’re firing harassing artillery, they’ll regroup and they’ll probably go again. Pull, the Germans (as our soldiers call the enemy on the front end), reserves.
To the next question, “How are you?” the answer comes the next day.
- Hi brother! Starship specific! The battle has already been going on for days, several brigades are fighting, the equipment is immeasurable. It's hard, but we stand! We beat the German as best we can, and hold on. The next day, another 12 units were hammered. They stopped us 400 meters before us. Three "Leopards" have already entered. One on that point (where several more Bradleys were destroyed ), and two more on the other flank.
- They say they are now letting Soviet technology go forward?
- No, everything is Pindos, Western. His is no longer there. But the projectile doesn't care whose. Humanitarian copters - day and night - help fucking. We cut off all approaches, if possible, with artillery.
- Doesn't the enemy crush our "birds" with electronic warfare?
- We do not let them go far, they drag it, of course.
The connection was interrupted again. Behind short but valuable messages from the very "front end" - sleepless nights, the smell of smoke and gunpowder burning, round-the-clock combat work and close proximity to death. These heroic people do not yet realize that they are actually making history. As their grandfathers once did on the Kursk Bulge. Gotta hold on guys! God help us...
More from Kots, via Russian military blogger Andrey Chervonets.
Leopards you say? Oh well…
History repeats itself
Like 80 years ago, the Nazis (German tanks, Nazi regime in Ukraine) with crosses are burning in Ukraine.
But this is not only a coincidence. Like 80 years ago, these Nazi tanks are taken as trophies.
Military correspondent Alexander Kots writes:
The first "Leopards" were captured
Journalists are at a low start. constructors too. And the military can’t wait until they can feel the hyped tank with their hands. But perhaps most of all, millions of ordinary Russians, who have been anxiously reading the news reports, want to get to know him better.
The West has decided to supply Leopards to Ukraine.
"Leopards" photographed on railway platforms.
"Leopards" seen in a forest plantation.
And, finally, the long-awaited: we burned the first Leopards!
It is clear that sooner or later one of the tanks abandoned by the crew will be pulled from the front of our tanks. And maybe not just one. It is clear that first of all it will fall into the hands of specialists who will disassemble it to the screw. And they will perform these manipulations in deep and secret silence. But already now we need to think about how to inflict an open information strike on the Leopards.
And this is the case when TV channels, newspapers, leading military bloggers do not have to chase exclusive. And vice versa - to unite under the leadership of the Moscow Region and to acquaint the country with the bulky trophy as detailed as possible. How terrible is this devil? And is it as much as it is painted?
Already now it is necessary to draw up a pool of writers and filmers for the “leopard hunt”. Identify designers who will talk about its strengths and demonstrate vulnerable areas.
Determine the range where specialists from Uralvagonzavod drive the Leopard along an obstacle course, through water barriers, in different engine operating modes. And they will arrange a kilometer race between the T-90M and the Leopard, and then answer the questions of journalists.
And at the training ground of the Ministry of Defense, prepare equipment in order to sequentially fire at the captured tank under the lenses of photo and movie cameras with all the anti-tank weapons that we have - from RPGs and ATGMs to 125-mm shells. And give the floor to the gunners from the front.
Captured German tanks are our trump card in the information war. The news about the defeat of the Ukrainian armored group made a lot of noise in the Western media and the blogosphere. And even the Russophobe Julian Roepke from Bild is naturally hysterical. So let's milk these Leopards dry. Let's reveal all their secrets. Perhaps then the West will once again think before giving us their military technology.
Say, I am engaged in hat-taking? In no case. In recent days, there have been good trends in the information support of the SVO: a lot of up-to-date video, comments by military leaders on the events of the day, live portraits of soldiers and officers. It is necessary to develop this offensive, especially against the background of the stupor of Ukrainian publics. It's temporary, no doubt. They will come to their senses and again will inflate every tiny win by 200 percent.
It doesn't seem to me impossible to quickly print several thousand posters with infographics of Western technology - strengths and weaknesses, And the most vulnerable points for our shells and missiles. So that these posters hang in every dugout at the front and at every training ground in the rear. And share them online. And in general, I would like to see the "Leopard" in Moscow's Gorky Park, at the same place where the defeated German equipment was exhibited during the Great Patriotic War. Having previously driven the Leopard along the Garden Ring with a photo session at the US Embassy.
But this is what I've been dreaming about...