Operation Bloodhound - Red Shadow Air Cushion Landing Craft

[Quickfire]

Recent footage from the frontline at Horlivka.



Drone footage of the remains of Stepanivka.



Ukrainian humour (Vova = Vladimir)



And A10s supporting the Kurdish breakthrough to Mt. Sinjar the other day.

[Quickfire]

Still a lot going on at the front amidst various diplomatic feints and a fairly useful prisoner exchange preceded by more badged Russian generals turning up in Ukraine for various negotiations. There has been more infighting on the Russian side brought on by lack of food and fuel (coal now being shipped direct to Russia - Cossacks have also pulled out taking anything not made out of cement or bricks with them). Some locals seem to have called in location of RF forces for UA artillery - if Russian militias and RF forces haven't already fired on each other in disputes over food, ammo and fuel.

Back at Donetsk airport (Russian held side)



Russians trying to close in on the airport at night ...



... Russian militia the next day



Oh, and appears Argentina got its SU-24 Fencers from Russia in return for prime rib. They may get taken down by Typhoons after they've fired their long range ordnance. F3s would have likely downed the Fencers at long range before they could launch ALCMs a la North Sea / Arctic scenarios envisaged versus Tupolev 95 Bears. Perhaps using super cruise the Typhoons could work out something similar.

[Quickfire]

Winter on the frontline.









Was at least slightly warmer down the road in Debaltsevo on Christmas Eve...





Remains of Luhansk airport.



Surrounded, every Ukrainian para defending the airport fought to the last man during the Russian offensives of August-September.

[Hopper]

Jesus Hallelujah Christ!
This all looks rather worrying...
Stay safe Herr Quickfire, and danke for the pics. I have a greater understanding of what is going on in Ukraine after your posts.
Interesting times indeed.

[Quickfire]

Danke Dr. Hopps, fear not, fortunately will not be heading направление Киев for a while yet ... time to sit back and enjoy the festivities while figuring out what is or is not going on ...



Russian attacks on Piski WSW of Donetsk Airport last night led to just under 10 Ukrainian KIA, then the Russians went for the airport directly.... Smoke rising over the airport this morning





... By noon it was over donetsk city centre





Recent Russian propaganda vid shows elementary armour exercises inside Eastern Ukraine somewhere near Luhansk. More interestingly, at 0:35 four 4x4 vehicles unique to the Russian Army have been filmed in theatre for the first time, Kamaz BPM-97 43296 'Vystrel'. The Tigr EW and ELINT vehicles are usually better hidden in the East (unlike Crimea).



Just before the snow, MAZ-537 tank transporters were also filmed deep inside Ukraine near Donetsk, presumably heading towards Mariupol. Usually - Luhansk train deliveries apart - most heavy kit was dumped just over the border in well-organised reception areas.



Mariupol had a total of nineteen drones coming in from the East in the last 24 hours ...

Similarly, you can get an idea of conditions for UA forces on the frontline in Krimsky near Luhansk just before the snow kicked in:



At least this volunteer who just arrived at Donestk Airport brought his wellingtons.



On the other side, bored Russian militia at a casualty station beyond the airport perimeter while away the time during the festivities c. dec 26.



En passant, the Russian versions of Esquire, GQ. Vogue and Tatler seek and have acquired domestically a certain mercantilist prestige in spite of the superficially antithetical political rhetoric prevalent at the moment. Such magazines' aspirations to be taken most seriously may perhaps be compared with Playboy in the 60s with all those 'cultural' interviews and wotnot ... so for Esquire to write an article about 'Gruz/Cargo 300' (Cargo 300 = pinged whereas Cargo 200 = slabbed), let alone use '300' as part of the URL puts the contributors at serious risk (usually severe beating/broken bones/arson etc. based on recent precedents in Pskov region and elsewhere) as they openly describe the fallout from Russian operations inside Ukraine. http://esquire.ru/300

Googletranslate gets very confused about some of the names and terminology and context in the article so waiting for some charitable soul to serve up the story on the interweb.

However, regarding Cargo 200, a recent summary may be found in English at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... d-war.html

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of Russian convoys entering Grozny for the first time, so, on that happy note, I bid you all a very merry vernichtungskrieg 2015 usw.

[Quickfire]

Czech Gripen (good choice despite the " in Vlad's pocket " factor among the Czech executive) intercepts Russian Ilyushin 20 Coot ELINT/Command & Control over the Baltic.



Italy took over the rotating command of the NATO Baltic Air Policing unit just as the Lithuanians busted a major Russian spying ring at one of the main airbases hosting them.

Lots of other stuff kicking off inside occupied territory but hard to make definitive sense of it. As of the last week every three days or so a major artillery assault begins on three or four key strongpoints on the Ukrainian frontline for six or more hours before trailing off.

[Quickfire]

A lot of footage from the last week is already being deleted (auto-deleted as too much info revealed or relevant channels getting taken down as part of the info war).

Russian forces are trying to encircle Donetsk airport so much of the action is there and to the north east of Donetsk in the gap to Luhansk. Significant use of artillery pieces and MLRS by the Russians following their recent resupply.

However, some footage is still up.

Ukrainian volunteer battalion Dnipro-1 near Donetsk airport during the last days trying to stop the wider encirclement by Russian forces.



Daytime footage of Ukraine soldiers again near the airport in standard news report (and note the UK kit ... )





Russians casually unleash Grads at some point over the last days (dunno how long the footage will be up).



Russian mortar position

[Quickfire]

After massive overnight shelling - preceded by a couple of equally bad nights of the same - Donetsk airport's iconic control tower has finally collapsed this morning as fighting continues.





Footage from a few minutes before ...

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Russian forces concentrating around their 'Odessa' HQ in Krasnodon near Luhansk as the current Russian offensives got underway about two or three days ago, lots of kit GAZ Vodnik, BPM-97, T-72B1 etc. and well-equipped troops.



More from the same day (now with appalling soundtrack)



Russian arty warming up



Ukrainian forces after shelling of Stanitsya near Luhansk about three days ago



Donetsk suburbs badly affected by shelling in last 48 hours, here a gas pipe goes up in a residential area.



Russians firing from a Donetsk suburb on the airport last night.



Russian propaganda vid from just before the full offensive to encircle and take Donetsk airport started in the last days.



Ukrainians at Pisky near the airport just before the offensive started (possible repost)



Recent footage from the airport and perimeter.

[Quickfire]

The Russians gave the almost completely surrounded UA forces at Donetsk airport until 1500GMT to surrender. After the ultimatum expired, buildings in central Donetsk began to shudder as the onslaught began.







Footage of the post post 1500HRS barrage below.