In the latest UK Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine, dated 12 June 2023, the Ministry of Defence has discussed Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s recent high-profile public appearances and comments related to Russia’s operations.
The report states, “Over the last week, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has maintained a high public profile, likely with the aim of presenting himself as in control of strategic issues while Ukraine accelerates offensive operations.“
This is noteworthy given that Shoigu had previously been less visible during other significant periods of the conflict.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 12 June 2023.
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/6pvExnomJb
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/bnIHCEJMP0
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 12, 2023
In addition, Minister Shoigu has reportedly made several comments pertaining to the situation, including what the UK Ministry of Defence believes are likely inflated claims regarding Ukrainian losses. “Shoigu has provided at least two comments on Russia’s defensive operations, including making almost certainly seriously exaggerated claims about Ukrainian losses,” reads the update.
Furthermore, the Russian Defence Minister has publicly called on Russia’s defence industry to increase its efforts. He also criticized officers in the Western Military District for what he perceived as their tardiness in sending reserve armoured vehicles to the front lines. The report quotes Shoigu, who “has also urged Russia’s defence industry to redouble its efforts, and castigated Western Military District officers for not dispatching reserve armoured vehicles to the front quickly enough.”
The UK Ministry of Defence suggests that Shoigu’s recent actions may be driven by a desire to uphold a positive image amidst growing domestic criticism. The report speculates that “Shoigu is likely acutely aware of the need to maintain a positive image in the face of increasingly unmasked criticism from some fellow Russians.“
I think some already have tbh.
Yes you are correct, they have. Russia was quick to publish pictures of the abandoned and burned out hulks. Allegedly, they have also captured an intact Leopard 2A6. I want to know if any Challengers have been lost. To be honest, I was holding on to some hope that they could be returned at wars end. Perhaps bought back for hard cash.
Shoigue’s position reminds me of a firing range target that operates using pullies and flags to signal when to fire! Talk about a ‘marked man.’ Why aren’t we surprised by the constant Russian untruths, which they constantly release through their media? Salsbury was a good case in point and there is nothing new in the reportage from Ukraine.
What is it they call it? Dead Man Walking?
At least two Lepard A6s have been destroyed and it’s feared one hull is in Russian hands. Limited air cover is blamed for losses including multiple Bradley hits.
Much information will be gleaned from Western vehicle losses, just as the RN experienced during the Falkland War. One question, why has no additional armour been fitted to Ukrainian CH2s as seen in Afghanistan and Iraq?
P.S. including cage armour.
Firstly how do we know it hasn’t ? As so far nothing suggests they have seen any action yet. Secondly as for cage armour it is designed to stop RPG type weapons so that the shaped charge is ineffective. Which was useful in Iraq and Afghanistan but not much use against a modern ATM.
ABCRodney wrote:
Here’s a video of a Leo2 A6 firing on the move (note smoke in the distance) before popping smoke and hitting reverse. On that note one fact about the Russian tanks: 72/80/90 which is never mentioned is they are shite in reverse as in 4 Km/h, so in order to bug out, Tanks do a 180 and hightail it out of there, problem there is, you have your weakest side facing the enemy.
There was a comment by one of the Ukrainian tank crews training here that they had to get use to reverse a tank away from a opposing tank as that was some that you could not do with any of the Russian tanks. Very interesting
Thanks Farouk. Great sources of info. Seems the L2 in your video was definitely prosecuting and hitting targets out at medium to long range.
Most important thing is the vehicles can be recovered and fixed up again.
Farouk this is very interesting but Maurice10 and we’re talking about CR2. And so far I haven’t seen anything, have you ?
If true, it’s still expected. Not a chance would all Western tanks come out of this unscathed.
Even so, I’d imagine they took out far more Russian tanks or other vehicles before succumbing.
AFAIK they were knocked out by mines and artillery while advancing to combat.No tank-on-tank battles reported yet.
More info on the channels I mentioned below
That makes sense. No tank in the world is going to be able to stand up to artillery strikes.
Are those reports ‘fake news’ from Russia?
Reliable sources – Rob Lee and Oryx blogs posted it.
Is Forbes a reliable source?. They published a story 2 days ago around an armoured breakthrough column getting splattered by a helicopter strike destroying the armoured engineering vehicle clearing a path that allowed follow up artillery to destroy 9 Bradley’s and X2 L2A6s.
Regardless of whether true or not seems SHORAD was lacking and the Ukrainian military haven’t quite got the concept of combined arms operations down to an art as yet.
The quotes i saw implied the column most likely hit Mines.
So from what I’ve seen the Helicopter attack bit is bullshit, it looks more like the column got stuck either in a minefield or under artillery (there’s a video of the incident and you can clearly see one of the bradley’s get hit, pop smoke, and the blokes disembark and jump onto another bradley).
Point being the Russians have released pictures of that even over and over again with different claims about it’s provenance and what happened, which suggests, it might just be all they have.
Ukraine forces are probing the front in multiple areas looking for weaknesses to exploit. They will be using armoured detachments to do this and if they suffer minor losses it is only to be expected. When they have identified the weakest place there will be a massive armoured assault involving hundreds of tanks and APCs that will rapidly smash through Russian defences. They will then exploit their success and attack Russian positions from the rear, rolling up the front
Whislt western supplied armour will get destroyed , (shit happens during a huge bun fight) dont take everything as gospel and it appears the Ukrainians are adapting
Hillarious. If the Ukrainian military can deploy thousands of decoys the Ruskfascist military will start running low on precision guided anti tank munitions intended to take out advanced MBTs. Bit of wood costing say £2-3k to make Vs an atin tank missile costing £50-100k
And here’s another example of a decoy getting hit by a Russian loitering muntion
CR2 TES Kits are not that plentiful – saying that we do not know the full package that was sent to Ukraine,like the Leo2 they were probably sent in the basic sold as seen standard and given permission to upgrade Armour on them theirselves if they see fit.
A mobile crane is needed to lift the armour off to work on the vehicle running gear . Also extra wear and tear on power train due to weight increase requiring more spares .
I don’t think any of the Leopards have ended up in Russian hands, most areas where they’ve been hit are by Artillery either behind the lines or in areas that Ukraine now controls.
I’d like to see the C2s in action, I fear loses in the counter attack are going to mean a much less effective outcome. The Ruskfascists seem to have done their homework and prepared some carefully zoned in tank traps covered by deep minefields and pre designated artillery zones.
The Bradley and L2 loses reported are a concern. I think the Ukrainian military would be best holding the C2s in reserve as a counter attack force for the future and throw them into battle only if Russia breaches the Ukrainian military front line. That is after all what the C2 is designed for. Defence against massed Russian tank formations.
Sounds like setting him up as the fall guy 🤔
Interesting story coming out of New Zealand:
Radio New Zealand investigates Russia-friendly editing of Ukraine articles
New Zealand’s national radio broadcaster is conducting an internal investigation after evidence emerged that an employee had edited wire reporting on the Ukraine war to add Russia-friendly phrasing. The state-funded RNZ, or Radio New Zealand, published at least four articles attributed to the Reuters wire service that had been edited to add pro-Kremlin phrasing.
The articles in question made a range of amendments: adding the word “coup” to describe the Maidan revolution; changing a description of Ukraine’s former “pro-Russian president” to read “pro-Russian elected government”; adding references to a “pro-western government” that had “suppressed ethnic Russians”; and on several occasions adding references to Russian concerns about “neo-Nazi elements” in Ukraine.
In one article, a paragraph was added reading: “The Kremlin also said its invasion was sparked by a failure to implement the Minsk agreement peace accords, designed to give Russia speakers autonomy and protection, and the rise of a neo-Nazi element in Ukraine since a coup ousted a Russian-friendly Ukrainian government in 2014.”
Another added that Russia launched its invasion “claiming that a US-backed coup in 2014 with the help of neo-Nazis had created a threat to its borders and had ignited a civil war that saw Russian-speaking minorities persecuted”.
Ukraine says these claims are discredited Kremlin propaganda. Street demonstrations began in late 2013 in Kyiv after the then president, Viktor Yanukovych, dumped an association agreement with the EU and accepted a bailout from Moscow. The anti-corruption movement was peaceful and had widespread public support.
Yanukovych fled to Russia months later after his security forces shot dead more than 100 unarmed protesters. Putin responded by annexing Crimea and kickstarting a war in the east, using undercover agents. There is no evidence Russian speakers are “persecuted” in Ukraine, a bilingual country. The far right, meanwhile, does badly in elections and has no parliamentary seats.
An RNZ spokesperson, John Barr, said in a statement after the first article came to public attention that “RNZ is taking the issue extremely seriously and is investigating how the situation arose. There will be no comment until that investigation is completed and any appropriate action taken.”
Two articles known to have contained altered phrasing have had editorial notes appended, reading: “This story was edited inappropriately and has been corrected. RNZ is concerned and takes this matter extremely seriously. We are investigating and have taken appropriate action.”
At least two other altered articles viewed by the Guardian had not been amended.
Megan Whelan, the head of content at RNZ, said: “RNZ is aware of instances of inappropriate editing of several wire service stories relating to the war in Ukraine published on our website. An investigation is under way into the alleged conduct of one employee. The employee has been placed on leave while we look into these matters.”
She added: “We have corrected the stories and added an explanatory note to each article. We are auditing other articles to check whether there are further problems. We will release the outcome of the audit when it is completed.”
The RNZ chief executive, Paul Thompson, said the inappropriate editing of the stories to reflect a pro-Moscow perspective was deeply concerning and would be addressed accordingly.
RNZ is New Zealand’s independent public service multimedia organisation. According to its charter, it is to “provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial and balanced” news, free of charge, to the New Zealand public.
Nothing new mate. As always, the enemy within.
Google “Reporting from Ukraine” This guy has good battlefield Info, alternatively, watch Denys Davydov’s videos.
Unfortunately, some Leopards and some Bradleys have been lost to mines and Artillery strikes already.
Maybe his appearances mean that Ukraine is making real progress…a bit like when “Baghdad Bob” kept appearing in TV saying that all the Americans had been killed and driven back from Baghdad, just as American tanks drive past him in the background!
Video purporting to Russians shooting retreating Wagner soldiers from the battlefield.
Russian mainstream media are reporting Chief of Staff of their 35th Combined Arms Army Maj Gen Sergei Goryachev killed in a Ukraine missile strike on the southern Zaporizhzhia front. Multiple Russian milbloggers say it was a Storm Shadow and that it also destroyed his HQ and many of his staff.
Yep. All good. If the Ukrainian military can decapitate the head of the Russian snake then the body will surely die.
God that’s brutal. Doesn’t look like those Wagner guys even had weapons. Just mowed down.
I’m a long way from a military expert, but surely the Ukraine counter offensive is ultimately doomed to failure without air any support? Isn’t air support and control of battlefield airspace the key to any victory?
Ukraine still has some combat aircraft available and their AA defences are getting bolstered by Western donations, so there is hope. Russia seems to be wasting a lot of its air launched ordinance on terrorising civilians.
So Shoigu is the fall guy should Russian defences struggle?
The latest video published by Mark Felton is well worth a watch for some historical context. “Ukrainian SS In Britain – Postwar SS-Galizien Division Refugees.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB_Gs-0dhOo
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before just how useful the post WWII Ukrainian expat community was to our Cold War endeavours. Someone should write a book on the subject. It will be both fascinating and alarming in equal measure. As it is very relevant to the causes of the current war. The cultural memory and bad blood of that region runs deep, same as the Balkans.
Counter attack isn’t going all that well. Seems the Russians have prepared pre set artillery barrages to cover sectors of the frontline as well as deep minefields. The Ukranian grasp of combined arms operations doesn’t seem to be quite there yet, sadly.
Missing SHORAD for advancing troops resulting in high loses of key armoured engineering and breaching vehicles. I think if loses continue the vaunted L2 tank is going to lose some of its legendary status. Seems to have a bit of a glass jaw. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/06/11/the-ukrainian-army-has-already-lost-half-of-its-unique-leopard-2r-breaching-vehicles/