Complied and analyzed by J.Hawk, produced by the SouthFront Video Team
Geoffrey Pyatt noted that the Ukrainian military has become stronger and more combat-effective over the last year. The US Viceroy to a remote corner of the US empire made this astonishing observation in the context of the international Sea Breeze maneuvers held in the Black Sea with US and Ukrainian participation. Probably, he jokes.
Emboldened by Pyatt’s utterances, Kiev’s beancounters decided to issue the above graphic illustrating just how much the UAF has grown over the last year. Whereas a year ago it had 8 operational brigades in the war zone, today it has 25! What the number don’t reveal, assuming the purported troop strength is even accurate, is the decrease in the quality of the UAF. The three-fold increase in the number of brigades, for example means the brigades are individually much weaker and forced to function without adequate command and staff facilities. This means that the UAF is the military equivalent of a stock market bubble. Outwardly impressive, but a single pin-prick and the whole thing bursts…
Speaking of pin-pricks… Ukrainian social media reports indicate Ukrainian forces located in the vicinity of Starognatovka became the target of a powerful Novorossia artillery strike on August 26, no doubt intended to dissuade UAF artillery from continuing to shell Donetsk, Gorlovka, and Pervomaisk, which resulted in at least 19-21 killed and “too many to count” wounded.
The increase in UAF’s combat effectiveness evidently has not extended to its control over weapons and ammunition, as an ATO veteran affiliated with Tyagnibok’s Freedom Party threw a grenade at the National Guard in riot gear guarding the Rada on August 31, causing numerous casualties.
The radar in question, a $250 thousand TALS (Tactical Automatic Landing System) radar used for controlling UAVs, was stolen from the Yavorovo training range near Lvov, but then reportedly returned to its proper owners. It might be that the radar was originally “appropriated” by members of the Ukrainian military itself and was returned only after the US made it clear this would be a major scandal–stuff just doesn’t “vanish” from the US military the way it vanishes from the UAF, a fact that might be a revelation for the “stronger and more capable” Ukrainian military.
As if on cue, a group of alcohol-inspired soldiers, apparently from the 79th Airmobile Brigade, decided to provide a demonstration of combat effectiveness…
Even sober, UAF soldiers can provide reasons to doubt their ability to perform in actual combat. What started out as a firepower demonstration seamlessly transitioned into a demonstration of how to set a Ukrainian flag on fire…
The Naval Infantry unit was sent to Shirokino to relieve the Azov Regiment, and at the time there were many reports suggesting that perhaps, in spite of its proud name, it was not quite up to the task of actual warfare. The fact that the Viking Battalion succeeded in capturing the unit’s banner suggests the reports may have been true…
30% of UAF wounds are to the…buttocks. That’s the estimate provided by Roman Kulik, a UAF soldier from Galicia, on the basis of reports by medical personnel. He attributes the high incidence of wounds to the posterior to the tactical movement techniques used by UAF soldiers, which exposes their fifth point of contact to Novorossia fire. However, another possibility is that at least some of these wounds are self-inflicted. And the two most notable owners of butt wounds are Semen Semenchenko and Dmitry Yarosh himself, whose buttocks tend to get in harm’s way just as the fighting escalates.
The six Ukrainian soldiers defect to DPR. They led by Artyom Molchanov, an army officer cadet from Odessa, with the remaining five being from the Donbass. Recent defectors also include a Border Guard Master Sergeant Sergey Sergeyev, who accused his superiors of organized marauding.
The sniper of 25th Airmobile Company accused its commanding officers of stealing aid provided by various volunteer organizations although, curiously, the volunteers themselves promptly came to the defense of the accused officers. Which indicates there might be a loop of corruption and kickbacks revolving around the “aid” which consistently fails to reach the actual UAF soldiers.
Sergeant-medic Vadim Sviridenko who was a member of the 128th Brigade during the Battle of Debaltsevo where he lost his forearms and legs below the knee, has been neither officially demobilized nor granted the benefits he is due to his veteran status. While this is an extreme case, it is one of very many similar cases of UAF soldiers being mistreated by the Kiev junta.
One year after Ilovaysk, the UAF still has 100 corpses of its servicemembers who perished in that battle and whose identity has not been established. At least another hundred servicemembers are considered actually missing or in captivity. Never, fight for Kiev. It’s a way to the dead end.
The most recent week has not delivered any major shifts in the state of the UAF, except perhaps for the worse. Available information indicates the UAF is a hollow force, possibly impressive in terms of its paper strength but with little ability to conduct offensive operations or resilience to absorb losses. The large number of available brigades and battalions can’t obscure the fact of major problems of morale and discipline caused by the lack of trained cadres, the neglect by the Kiev junta, the population’s disillusionment with the war, and the worsening economic situation.