(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Ukraine update: As anniversary of invasion approaches, Russian forces have no presents for Putin [1] ['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-23 The answer doesn’t seem to be a single massive Russian defeat. Instead, that pile of broken vehicles appears to result from another impressive number, out of the Ukrainian military reports on Tuesday morning: In a single day, Ukrainian forces repelled no fewer than 90 individual assaults on Ukrainian positions from one end of the line to another. Ukraine repelled assaults on Stelmakhivka west of Svatove, and Bilohorivka south of Kreminna. Interestingly enough, Kreminna itself was on the list of failed assaults. A Russian attempt to remove those Ukrainian forces from the south and west of the city was reportedly one of the biggest failures of the day. x Yet, another Russian T-90M lost, this time south of Kreminna in the forests. Since weeks Russians declared an ongoing offensive in that area with no permanent gains of note. This lost T-90M fits to this picture.#Kreminna #Luhansk #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/qVLeb8kENg — (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) February 22, 2023 Russian forces failed in attacks in at least six different areas around Bakhmut. That includes three separate attempts to cross the M03 highway between Orikhovo-Vasylivka and Berkhivka, and more attempts to cross into Bakhmut around that cluster of highway crossings. Bakhmut. Icons represent failed Russian assaults. Open image in another tab for a larger view. Interestingly, the command only reported a single failed assault south of the city. Earlier in the week, that effort to cross the highway south of Ivaniske and move toward Chasiv Yar seemed to be the main thrust of Russian activity in the area, but over the last two days, this effort appears to have fizzled. Oh, and … Bakhmut holds! In the area west of occupied Donetsk, Russia made assaults toward Novobakhmutivka, Avdiivka, Vodiane, Nevelske, Mariinka, Pobieda, Vuhledar, and Prechystivka. That’s a long list, but thankfully the list of successful advances can be summed up as none of the above. And that assault on Vuhledar? Once again, that’s reportedly one of Russia’s big losses on the day, as they apparently can’t resist decorating those extensively mined fields south and west of the town with still more dead armor. An attack east of Prechystivka, about 8km west of Vuldehar, appeared to represent a new vector for Russian assaults. However, it ended as all the others launched on Wednesday: by going nowhere. Shelling continued along the Zaporizhzhia line and across the river into Kherson, where Russia likes to remind the city they are “Russia forever” by sending them festive incendiary bombs. Prigozhin makes promo video one day after waving picture of dead mercenaries Wagner group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin showed up in Bakhmut today to shoot a little promo video from the occupied area on the east end of Bakhmut. In this case, he was near the grounds of the all too familiar winery. x 📍 Ватажок бойовиків ПВК "вагнер" зняв відео на території Artwinery (стара назва АЗШВ) Схоже, що там знаходиться і ворожий КСП.https://t.co/Kqk5vqhdHE pic.twitter.com/EkEw0elBKv — DeepState UA (@Deepstate_UA) February 23, 2023 I’ll spare you the actual pep talk for cannon fodder, but you have to wonder why he didn’t include that image of bodies of former Wagner Group mercenaries stacked like cordwood that Prigozhin was showing around yesterday as he complained about inadequate support from the military. Losses being detailed in near real-time Because so many of the losses are now happening in Russian assaults on Ukrainian positions, vehicles are often filmed by drones and right out in the open for ID. As a result, Oryx is tallying Russian losses about as fast as the Ukrainian military reports them. Here are the items added in just the last day. x #UkraineWar: Overview of Russian equipment losses added on 22/02/2023 Full list: https://t.co/wxuwtueKnD pic.twitter.com/fKrepp1Cqw — Jakub Janovsky (@Rebel44CZ) February 22, 2023 Mariupol mystery weapon This morning there were at least three more explosions around Mariupol, which sent Russia’s fighter jets scrambling into the air. But even as they searched for something to shoot, two suggestions were circulating about how Ukraine suddenly managed to touch a location that Russia thought was safely out of range. The first may be the simplest. x I don't think Ukraine is hitting Mariupol because they have longer range weapons, I think they are hitting it because Russia's artillery in the Vuhledar area is failing to provide a great enough threat to stop Ukraine from moving m270s close enough to the line to fire to Mariupol — Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) February 23, 2023 Sure. 80 km is close to the limits of what the longest-range M30 rockets that the U.S. has made available to Ukraine can accomplish, but if Russia’s artillery skills are proving to be laughably poor, then why not drag a gun right up to the last screen of trees and take advantage of every meter of that range? Ukraine may feel that it’s worth risking a single launcher if it can make Russia go into a high panic, which it has. There’s also another possibility. x Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 UCAV with “FCKPTN01” call sign active over Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/nvC5A1Q10t — Clash Report (@clashreport) February 23, 2023 It’s been some time since the Bayraktar TB2 has come up in discussions about activities in Ukraine, but several of these heroes of the early fighting are still around. In the period before the arrival of western artillery and HIMARS, it was the Bayraktar that generated so many hits against Russian targets far from the front lines that it got its own theme song. As months passed, the Bayraktar became less of a threat to Russian forces. Just as Ukraine quickly learned to shoot down Iranian Shahed-136 drones, turning them from a wave of destruction to an evening of target practice, Russia grew more skilled against the Bayraktar over time. By August, reports of effective strikes from the Turkish drone had all but stopped. x Source TCH TELEGRAM Russian planes flying over Mariupol now. 12:45pm Day 365 pic.twitter.com/fwkSnDSnRu — UKRAINE HOLDS.💙🇺🇦DAY 365 🚀GLORY TO THE HEROES (@UkraineDiary) February 23, 2023 However, it’s been a long time since then. Plenty of time for Russian skills to get rusty and for other weapons, including other drones, to become a distraction. The Bayraktar has an enormous range and is easily capable of making it to Mariupol and back. Its presence in the area might explain why Russia spent Thursday morning with fighter jets zipping back and forth over Mariupol … though they didn’t report bagging any targets. Marking the anniversary of war in London As you might expect, Daily Kos has some stuff planned for tomorrow to mark the anniversary of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. They’re already busy in London. x 340 liters of paint in the colors of Ukrainian flag were poured near the Russian embassy in #London by Led by Donkeys activists. Four people were detained for obstructing traffic. The group said non-toxic, solvent-free and fast-dry paint was washable and designed for road art. pic.twitter.com/bbXHDILCgI — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) February 23, 2023 Russian troops reportedly rebelling south of Vuhledar Failed attempts to capture Vuhledar, bypass Vuhledar, or come anywhere near Vuhledar have become an almost daily occurrence. Several of these failed assaults have resulted in losses so significant they’ve been compared to the Bilohorivka bridge debacle in terms of both the men and machines lost. This morning, there are multiple reports that Russia mounted another such assault on Tuesday, resulting in another round of losses on the same stretch of road where literally dozens of burned-out Russian vehicles already litter the shoulders. The reason for that seems to be some severe pressure being applied to Colonel General Rustam Muradov, who is in charge of Russian forces in the area. UK MOD update on Russia Muradov was actually promoted following the first two big failures at Vuhledar, but he was apparently sent back with orders to make it happen. That led to another assault on Wednesday in which at least a half dozen more armored vehicles were reportedly destroyed, along with unknown numbers of troops. But even if Muradov is feeling the pressure to organize another attack, After watching their fellow soldiers walk to their deaths along the same stretch of road over and over, the Ukrainian ministry of defense reports that Russian forces in the area appear to have a different idea. "Troops from the so-called volunteer Cossack Detachment, attached to the 155th Marine Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet, are refusing to continue to take part in offensive operations due to the failure of the offensive and significant personnel losses near Vuhledar." This may or may not be accurate. But it’s not hard to understand if those troops decided this has become ridiculous. x Vuhledar has become a Russian graveyard. Latest example; two T80 tanks disabled. The biggie is the BMP-1AM, only entered service in 2020 it's a totally new version of the classic BMP1. Armed to the teeth, but lightly armoured. This engagement resulted in a loss of $11M for #Putin https://t.co/KgeQuglj9G pic.twitter.com/I5QgzBVpK4 — Rod Francis (@InRodWeTrustMTL) February 23, 2023 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/23/2154575/-Ukraine-update-As-anniversary-of-invasion-approaches-Russian-forces-have-no-presents-for-Putin Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/