In this video some fighting is still going on:
A burning vehicle is behind the bushes and the munition in it is exploding.
(GRAPHIC) This video shows the aftermath of the ambush. WARNING: it shows 2 dead, 3 wounded and a dying soldier.
A translation of the text in the video can be found here.
This is the reconstructed situation map:
Locations are approximately.
On a larger scale:
Blue arrow = Ukrainian advance.
Red cross = approximate location of ambush.
On Google maps:
Screenshots from the second video, looking to the North:
And looking to the South:
Not that BMP 3 is facing north. It must have been turned.
This shot shows tracks on the road where the BMP might have turned:
This screenshot shows the shadow of the cameraman. He is filming with a pocket camera.
He is also wearing a gun:
This is where he films himself:
The captive soldiers are Ukrainian:
The rebels have the TOP notch Russian ATGM Konkurs:
According to Lavrov and Putin they grow on Ukrainian trees...
Another small foxhole in the bushes:
A screenshot:
This screenshot shows that the third BMP is on the background, so this concerns a 4th BMP:
Not the hole in the side of the BMP, where must have been hit.
There is a chance that the 'jeep' actually is this 4th BMP, but it is hard to determine on the 2nd video.
In the video a captured soldier said he worked 'on contract', meaning he was not a conscript.
Likely scenario.
4 BMPs drove down the road closer towards Lugansk, without infantery support. They had not noticed the foxholes, or may have thought they were abandoned. When the first BMP was already past the ambush location, they opened fire on the middle two, knocking them/the crew out. The first one had to turn around and come back to assist. The fourth went off the road onto the side. But both of them were taken out too.
Some remarks:
- It is not smart to drive BMPs down a road without infantry support. The infantry is supposed to discover and protect the tanks from RPGs and the tanks are supposed to protect the infantry.
- Note how the 'cameraman' actually is a soldier.
- The ambush was very professional. It is an art to hide and wait with shooting until you can get them all.
(If you see any errors or have additions, please let me know.)
I really don't understand; is the Ukrainian Army THIS unprofessional??? It's really frustrating to see for them to make elementary tactical and operational mistakes, driving around without multi-unit support, without apparently any serious reconnaissance or scouts or embedded spotters behind enemy lines, etc. I have to grudgingly admit that the rebels seems to be much more professional at many locations.
ReplyDeleteJeeeeesh; if they don't wise up, many more Ukrainian soldiers will die and they might totally lose the East even without a Russian invasion... :-(
Has the unit patch at 4:31 on the second video been ID'd?
ReplyDeletemy 2 cents:
ReplyDelete1) The "jeep" is a UAZ 469 from the ukrainian border guard. I guess it's a captured vehicle used by the pro-russian. the UAZ is cleary visible at 2:09 on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfi_89-BtkQ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UAZ_offroad_vehicle_in_Ukraine.jpg
2) the cameran is this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efMosh4xCow&oref at 2:30 say that the attacking force was composed of 2 BTR and 2 "tanks" (in fact BMP-2). 2 BMP and 1 BTR were still serviceable after the ambush. So my second guess is that the destroyed vehicle is a BTR.
Most of machines are not a BMP, but BTR.
ReplyDelete