“On March 3, on the 8th day of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) managed to achieve several tactical but significant victories over the advancing Russian forces.
Ukrainian forces recaptured the settlement of Bucha north of Irpen on the northwestern outskirts of Kiev. A Ukrainian flag is hoisted over the city council building. Earlier this town had been occupied with heavy fighting by Russian units. Retaking control of Bucha is primarily an important ideological victory for Kiev.
Near Irpen, a column of Russian paratroopers had earlier been defeated. Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky was killed. Sukhovetsky had previously commanded the 7th Airborne Division, and was most recently deputy commander of the 41st Army.”
Units of the AFU had some success in repulsing attacks by Russian forces in the direction of Mykolaiv. A convoy of Russian military vehicles was destroyed on the outskirts of the city. Bridges across the Southern Bug River, including a railway bridge, were blown up. One of the road bridges on the approach to the village of Kalinovka was blown up as Russian military vehicles passed over it.
The AFU also seized several Russian BMP-3s and a Tiger off-road vehicle near Nikolaev.
The advance of Russian troops on this section of the front was halted.
After the heavy fighting near Vasilievka and the blowing up of bridges there by the AFU, there is no information about the advance of Russian troops in the direction of Zaporizhzhya and beyond.
There are fierce battles for Mariupol. Also there are still pockets of Ukrainian armed forces resistance in Volnovakha.
Around Kharkov, so far the Russians have not been able to neutralize mobile groups of Ukrainian nationalist battalions. These mobile groups carry out raids against Russian supply columns and destroy civilian vehicles that seek to withdraw from the combat area towards the Russian border.
Comment: SouthFront is uniformly pro-Russian so this piece is unusual. pl
Have always found Southfront.org to be one of the more realistic sites on the middle east.
Indeed they are. Consortiumnews.com, Antiwar.com, al-Mayadeen.com, al-Akhbar news, mintpress news.com, realnews.com, veteranstoday.com, unz are all pro-Russian (I’d say bought and paid for by Russia, otherwise they’re nothing but useful idiots which is even worse!).
I used to read them every once in a while a few years back. Many critics usually bring up the pro-Chinese and progressive connection in terms of the pro-Beijing coverage that they give, but they leave out libertarian and non-interventionist websites whose ‘libertarianism’ just suddenly evaporates when it comes to Russia and China. For them it’s always blame America first.
I’m pleasantly surprised Southfront published this article. , The admission of the death of MG Sukhovetsky and the recapture of Bucha is significant. The capture of Russian equipment is vastly understated. Saw a video today of an entire battery of Tunguskas parked together neatly and abandoned. Ukrainian Territorial troops were torching the entire battery. There’s other videos of a Tor-M2 being pulled by tractors and that Pantsir stuck in the mud being put to the torch. There’s a lot of these videos. Frankly, I’m surprised there’s that much connectivity remaining across Ukraine.
Yesterday, the “Ukrainian Presidential Office called for “total resistance” on occupied territories, including guerrilla warfare. Task number one is to paralyze and demolish supplies behind enemy lines: attack supply tracks and block the roads.” In a related statement the Ukrainian Special Operations Force vows to identify and assassinate all Russian artillery servicemen responsible for their indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets. “Each and every gun crew… will be slaughtered like pigs.” Typical Slavic emotionalism and potential war crimes, but hitting the artillery and missile units is an ideal SOF mission at this time.
For the air war, two nights ago two Ukrainian Mig-29s engaged two Russian Su-35s with the assistance of Ukrainian S-300s. The result was the downing og both Su-35s and the loss of one Mig-29. The Ukrainians are not to be counted out yet.
“ Typical Slavic emotionalism “
“Cyka Blyat!” (Whore Bitch) is the “allah akbar!” of East Slavs. 🤣
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oc146Rs7eRQ&noapp=1
Condottiere,
I’ve conversed with Russian hackers for many years over FIDONet and IRC. The most epithet and term of endearment we shared was mudak… hundreds, maybe thousands of times.
Since most of the Russian air force is engaged in Ukraine and they cannot even control air space with their magnificent S400 / S500 systems in their own backyard, now is the time to finish them off. Now that we know how anemic their air defense systems are, we can easily infiltrate the far east and bomb sections of their NG gas pipelines to China.
If mig-29’s are destroying Su-35’s and our old F15’s easily destroyed mig-29’s just think of what our advanced stealth aircraft can to to their NG pipelines in going into China. Let’s do it.
CJC,
I assume you’re being facetious. Remember, those two Mig-29s were aided in this fight by S-300s, an older but still potent system. I guess trying to deal with threats from the air and ground simultaneously was just too much for the bolsheviki.
The Russians have allowed a large number of their AD/A2 systems to be taken out in Ukraine without being deployed either to drones, mud or morale that obviously lower than whale shit. I guess the cream of the AD/A2 crop must be in Syria or around Moscow. Still I wouldn’t want to send our Air Force across the Russian border for just shits and grins.
Correct TTG. I retract my snarky response. Strange things happen. Given the range of the mig-29, they might have taken off from Romania or Poland and had assistance from NATO guidance.
Hitting two Su-35’s, still surprised but given Russia’s air defense systems, I am very surprise that even one mig-29 could get away. I suppose if it was close to the border and the air defense controller hesitated to avoid shooting down one of his own, that could happen.
There is just so much BS reporting currently that I don’t think we will really know the score until weeks from now. The Russians could be winning or losing, don’t know but trying to install a govt is a fools errand.
CJC,
No need to retract. There was a lot of healthy skepticism in that snark. Perhaps the Russian Aerospace Force pilots don’t have their hearts in this fight any more than their army brethren who are abandoning their equipment all over the Ukrainian countryside at alarming rates. Looks like it’s approaching Civil War rates of desertion to me.
“Now that we know how anemic their air defense systems are, we can easily infiltrate the far east and bomb sections of their NG gas pipelines to China.”
And if your inflitrators get caught or your “advanced stealth aircraft” get detected and identified, you have just started World War 3.
Don’t do it.
Dear Colonel,
I am not knowledgable in this area, but a few commentators on SmoothieX12s blog suggested it was not a Russian Tank.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-72#/media/File:ParkPatriot2015part2-21.jpg
It also doesn’t look clearly destroyed. perhaps someone in the SST community is knowledgable.
I checked Sputnik’s website yesterday and it was replaced with anti-Russian anti-Putin news items (its now back to normal pro-Russian info).
ISL –
Not destroyed. But now unusable sitting precariously on a blown up overpass. Soon some intrepid Ukrainian will climb out there to strip it of anything useful and then burn it.
We here in USA have our faults, but I’ve gotten so tired of the spittle blab over at Saker, MOA and others. What I like about war, if there is to be anything likable, is that it’s like a street fight. I have so often enjoyed seeing the beating of the one decreeing the death, etc, etc of the winner. This has a long way to go – size of the fight in the dog… Then the sights need to be turned against those who demanded this war, and what was their intent -?
Took me a bit to get your point but I do. The size of the fight in the dog is what’s important. What’s unimportant is that the AZOV Batt. has a bad rep. If they kill Russians I’m for’em. We can carp about their pedigree later. I never thought the Ukrainians would last this long. Sometimes prize fights go this way. The guy who was pummeled in the early rounds is still in the center of the ring after 6 and he is on his feet. One must admit the situation along the Black Sea coast looks hopeless, but resupply from NATO s/b showing up in Poland. Now how to get it through Galicia and into the east and south of in time.
Regarding the photo: an OSINT twitter account, ‘UAWeaponsTracker’, claims Ukrainian forces blew up that overpass near Mykolaiv while a Russian T-72B3 was attempting to cross. If true about the T-72B3, that is not your average 50-year old T-72. The B3 upgrades started in 2010 with a major overhaul and upgrades and fielded just eight years ago. They reportedly have more powerful engines, a new steering system, better tracks, new main gun & new fire control, Refleks ATGM, a Thales thermal imager, and multi-spectral sensors. Better performance than the T-90.
Mykolaiv is on the main route from Kherson (now in Russian control) to Odessa. I would guess the Ukrainians may also have demo charges set on the nearby bridges over the Bug and Inhul rivers on the roads to Odessa.
Bridges can be rebuilt. Blow’em.
JFC!!
Dmyitro Kuleba writes, “Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Fire has already broke out. If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!”
The Russians continue to fire on the firefighters forcing them to pull back from the flaming reactor building. This particular module is powered down for maintenance, but the fuel is still in place. If Russians don’t come to their senses either on site or in Moscow, we may have to risk establishing a no fly/no fire zone around Zaporizhzhia.
Looks like the local Russian commander quickly realized his martial faux pas and stopped shooting at the firefighters. Last report from the scene had 10 engines and 40 fighters putting down the fire. No reactor is in immediate danger… as long as the Russians don’t get a sudden case of the stupids again.