The Russians have apparently launched a major incendiary attack on the heavily contested town of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast.
Video captured by a drone has emerged showing the telltale droplets of brightly glowing incendiary munitions reportedly burning across Bakhmut.
The video was geolocated to Bakhmut by our friend Evergreen Intel.
The Russians apparently used incendiary ammunition against the defenders of Azovstal in Mariupol a year ago. (Twitter screencap)
By covering a wide area with very hot flaming droplets, arsonists will devastate some structures, certain types of material, foliage, vehicles, and especially flesh.
Block-by-block combat between the ruins of a once-thriving coal-mining town has proven extremely costly for both sides. Russia stepping up the use of these terrible area weapons at Bakhmut would come as no great surprise as its advance has stalled and a major Ukrainian counteroffensive looms.
We will be keeping a close eye on this evolving situation and will update our story with any new information that comes in.
Before we turn to the latest updates from Ukraine, The War Zone readers can catch up on our ongoing coverage so far here.
The newest
The spokesman for Ukraine’s air force on Friday dismissed claims that a newly deployed Patriot air-defense missile downed a Russian Kinzhal missile over Kiev yesterday. The claim of a Ukrainian defense news release and open-source intelligence trackers would mark a major milestone for Ukraine, which has long sought more sophisticated air defense systems like the Patriot to defeat fast-moving ballistic missiles it previously could not.
“I’ve already denied it a thousand times, you should have seen it yesterday,” Colonel Yuri Ignat told Ukrainian media outlet Suspline. “There was a possibility of deployment, but no ballistic missiles were recorded. What some heads of military administration say, they’ve already gotten for it.”
The Kinzhal (Russian for dagger) is a short-range Iskander ballistic missile specially adapted for air launch. They are fired from MiG-31 Foxhound heavy interceptors modified to carry a single such missile. Given the range and speed of these weapons, a nationwide alert is raised whenever a foxhound is sighted taking off in a neighboring area, Ignat told reporters in March.
In its analysis, Defense Express pointed out that one of the photos that surfaced on social media “shows the nose fairing, that used in the Kh-47 ‘Dagger’ missile, with a complex shape with a sharp diameter as similar as possible is transitions.”
The Ukraine Weapons Tracker OSINT group came to the same conclusion as Defense Express about the debris pointing to the wreckage of a ballistic missile, most likely a Kinzhal.
“The debris matches the unitary warhead configuration used in the Kh-47M2 and Iskander series missiles,” they tweeted on Friday.
The Defense Express and Ukraine Weapons Tracker assessments came a day after Ukrainian officials said missiles were part of the latest barrage on Kiev on Thursday. It was a hectic day when Ukraine also shot down one of its own TB-2 drones. You can read more about it here.
“The Russians attacked Kiev with Shahed-type blocking ammunition and likely ballistic missiles,” Serhiy Popko, head of the military administration of the city of Kiev, also known by its Ukrainian acronym KMVA, wrote on the organization’s Telegram channel Thursday. “(The final type of missiles used will be determined only after examining the remains). According to preliminary information, in the airspace of Kiev our air defense forces destroyed all enemy missiles and UAVs!”
The Ukrainian Air Force was apparently dissatisfied with both the Kinzhal’s analysis and the KMVA’s comments about a possible ballistic missile in the weapon mix that hit Kiev on Thursday.
“There will be no comments or power-ups from Air Force announcers today!” it said on Friday on his Telegram channel. “For additional current, operational and reliable information that the enemy will use in the war against Ukraine, please refer to the following sources of information.”
The Air Force then listed the URL for Defense Express as well as the link to the KVMA Telegram channel.
“We apologize for the inconvenience!”
As we wrote back in December, the Patriots are likely a prime target for Russia, which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov threatened at the time. Given the somewhat static nature of these batteries, with at least one most likely defending Kiev, they would be a prime target for Kinzhal missiles.
Yesterday we told you about a series of suspected drone strikes on Russian oil depots within its own borders and on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has occupied since 2014. This rush has apparently continued to this day. According to Russian media, Russian media reported another Ukrainian drone attack on the Ilsky refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar Oblast, across the Kerch Strait from Crimea.
“Fire at Ilsky oil refinery in Krasnodar Territory on video,” Russia’s MASH news agency reported on Friday on its Telegram channel. “This is the second attack on oil storage facilities by Ukrainian forces in two days.”
“Previously, the UAV flew into one of the facilities, a fire started. No casualties were reported.”
MASH claimed the refinery was attacked by “a group of saboteurs. According to our information, they were arrested. They attempted to escape from the emergency site through the pipeline. Refinery workers say saboteurs blew up the fifth plant using IEDs. The victims are still unknown.”
The War Zone could not independently verify this information.
Another tranche of Ukrainian troops is being trained on Western armor, in this case 80 Leopard 1 tanks donated by Denmark and Germany.
Those tanks are expected to be operational in Ukraine next month, US-funded news agency Radio Svaboda reported on its Telegram channel on Friday.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry Telegram channel, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu flew to Ukraine on Friday to conduct a readiness inspection.
“Deputy Minister of Defense Colonel-General A. Kuzmenkov, responsible for material and technical support to the Russian Armed Forces, presented Army General Sergei Shoigu with new deliveries of modern tanks, armored fighting vehicles, special equipment and motor vehicles from enterprises of the military-industrial complex to supply the groups Russian troops,” according to the Defense Ministry.
Shoigu also “inspected storage and repair bases for weapons and military equipment withdrawn from combat zones.”
And as we wrote earlier today, Shoigu, as an obvious reaction to the outbreak of Prigozhin, also instructed Colonel-General A. Kuzmenkov “to keep under special control the issues of continuous and rhythmic supply of groups of troops in the areas of the special command military operation with all necessary weapons and military equipment.”
As part of its ongoing Drone Army initiative, Ukraine has trained 10,000 drone operators, digital transformation minister Mykhailo Federov reported, according to the Kyiv Post. You can read more about Ukrainian drone operations in our story here.
Speaking of drones, check out this Ukrainian first-person video (FPV) drone taking out a Russian speeding down the street on a quad bike. The FPVs are fast one-way quadrocopters that are controlled via VR glasses and can hit highly dynamic targets.
These drones are gaining popularity among Ukrainian troops as you can see in this image below.
That’s it for now. We will update this story when we have more news to share about Ukraine.
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