A little more information has come out about the missile strike on the NATO mercenary forward base at Yarovorsky. The base was struck by at most eight caliber missiles, which were used to take out the barracks, command facilities and weapons stores. There was however one other component in the strike that was not mentioned in the initial reports - a single Iskander ballistic missile was used to take out the concrete 'nuclear bunker' at the site where strategic weapons were stored. NATO had expected that subterranean weapons store, sunk nine metres below the ground encased in reinforced concrete, would be safe from any Russian strike, but they were very wrong. No wonder there is panic in Washington and NATO.
When surviving mercenaries starting reporting the strike in the days afterwards, they invariably talked of 'thousands' of casualties. I put this down to exaggeration and the fog of war. Initial reports were of a few hundred casualties, but the number has quietly increasing. We won't the truth of the matter until after the war is over, but I now believe the numbers are actually on the higher side and included a large number of NATO officers.
The results of similar missile strikes on barracks and troop agglomerations have been devastating. The footage below is from a TOR-1 thermobaric weapon strike on a Ukrainian bunker. Thermobaric weapons were developed especially to annihilate troops in fortified positions. The fireball created by the explosive is so intense that it consumes all the oxygen in the surrounding area, with the resulting shock wave bursting soldier's lungs.
Mariupol
Mariupol is nearing the end game. DPR and Chechen special forces began a clearing operation in Mariupol on Friday 25th March 2022. The nazi Azov Battalion hold outs were given to midnight to surrender. No quarter would be given after that time. Some units fought to their destruction but others dropped their uniforms and attempted to slip away among the evacuating civilians. Most were caught, identified by their tattoos or reported by the civilians they were using as cover. Azov's treatment of Mariupol's residents has been so appalling that there is no love lost on them. The house to house search is exposing many horrors of torture and murder on a mass scale. Destruction within the city is terrible, in part due to the Russian's having to fight street by street, but also because Azov have carved a swathe of destruction in their wake, blowing up buildings and infrastructure as they go.
As clearing Mariupol involves house to house searching, it has gone very slowly. There is little coherent defence left as the Azov units have retreated into the vast Azovstahl steelworks. There is an ongoing debate whether to proceed with a clearing operation, with its attendent casualties, or simply annihilate the entire complex with stand-off weapons.
Interestingly, a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter was shot down attempting a landing at night at the Azovstahl works. This was obviously an attempt to evacuate a high value target from the doomed garrison. Someone is worried.
Nikolaev will be next for libertation after the Mariupol operation is completed. Ukrainian troops have pinned around the city outskirts for some time now and these are being reduced with Caliber missiles and MRLS. Within the city itself, a Caliber missile destroyed the regional administration building from where the city's defence was being coordinated. The missile strike was captured on the buildings own surveillance camera.
The result is devastation.
In all other theatres positional warfare is now largely over and the process of reducing the encircled troops continues to grind on. On 29th March 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced that there would be a reduction in offensive operations in the area of Kiev and Chernigov. This was immediately seized on commentators in the west as proof that the Russian campaign is nearing collapse. This is moronic wishful thinking by idiots who don't understand the Russian strategy - pin down Ukrainian forces in the cities and on the battlefield and defeat them in detail. We are now at that point. Mariupol will cleared shortly and troops will move north to Nikolaev. Some units around Kiev and Chernigov will be repositioned to the south east to block the large Ukrainian force pinned down on the Donestk frontline, so that it can be destroyed. Russia's moves are calculated and rational.
There's lots of political and economic news to cover and this post has been delayed for days due to other commitments, so I will stop here and start a new post. In the meantime, I recommend B from Moon of Alabama's analysis of the Russian position. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/ukraine-sit-rep-part-ii-of-russias-military-operation-unfolds.html#more
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