Wow, I expected the explosion to do a lot more damage. A lot of work and planning probably went into stopping rail traffic at Kerch for 6 hours. Starting to think the days of worthwhile sabotage are gone, and it's not that things are sturdier than they used to be (though they are, really, or at least the standard has gotten more durable), it's more that it's so easy and cheap to fix most things these days as logistics, coordination and communication between different sectors of any army has gotten so much easier, and the advent of so much heavy machinery has made tasks that would take weeks at minimum, take hours. If this had happened during WW2, that bridge would have been out of commission for weeks at least. And even if the bridge went down the flow would have only been slowed - ferries are always an option and many would probably be called within a day or two.
Everywhere else the lines hold. All these attacks in the direction of Davydiv Brod are hard to justify - I've counted more than 5 recorded failures in this week alone, and this has been an active front for the past few months (this is by no means the most active its been). We're probably heading into 5 digits territory of UAF personnel dead there, and not to mention the massive amounts of equipment lost. It's good that the Russians retreated from the direction of Kryivi Rih, this was always a stupid move that further overextended and wasted resources of an army already struggling to hold as much ground as it did/does, and came at a time where what they spent there could have been used to greater effect in the East of the country.
The UAF seems to have finally lost momentum, will to continue or resources to spend in the East, though just a few days ago most RU sources seemed certain that an attack on Svatovo or Kreminna would quickly follow, nothing came of it and now most are instead worried about a counter-offensive coming from the Zaporizhia direction, a very big one at that.
The situation is getting interesting in Bakhmut. Wagner, who are mostly fighting alone with artillery support, is doing well there and keeps gaining ground, street by street, and only two roads out of the city remain. I wasn't expecting progress to come here as it has, but this means it must be true that the garrison there was severely weakened as troops were pulled for the counter-offensive in Kharkiv. If the Russians take Soledar soon, Bakhmut will be in real danger of encirclement and subsequent siege, with not much available to relieve it. I don't believe it will happen anytime soon though, the amount of troops it would take far exceeds what is currently there and the Russians have more important things to worry about right now.
Pervomaiske was taken today. Not very important, but all progress is progress. After the tooth and nail defense of Pesky, it says something that this one was taken far more easily and expediently. Not enough defenders, or a tactical retreat?
Some news: regarding colonels (including lts) this week, a couple dead on both sides, and some new.
UAF Justice Colonel, senior officer of the Ukrainian
military prosecutor's office Vitalyi Stadnik, KIA Oct.1
UAF Colonel of the 40th air brigade, Mikhail Matyushenko
KIA in a battle over the Black Sea, he was actually shot down June 26.
LT. Colonel Igor Bezogluk, callsign "Levsha", instructor and co-founder of the Ukrainian Legion, KIA by a mine.
Russian Guards Colonel Vitaly "Legion" («Легион») Sukuyev, commander of the 108th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment of the 7th Airborne Infantry Division.
With the VDV, his fighters were surrounded in the first few days of the war, but punched through the encirclement, bringing captured UAF personnel with them.
Killed September 28 in the direction of Kherson.
Artem Zhoga, commander of the Sparta battalion of the DPR was promoted to Colonel. You may remember the name "Zhoga" from his son, Colonel Vladimir "Vokha" Zhoga (right) who was killed in the battle of Volnovakha in the early stages of the war.
PS: Took me more than an hour to write this because of how hard it is to upload pictures. I hate troons.
