HISTORY

A class Serna landing craft after receiving a hit from Bayraktar.

A pontoon with floating crane is visible at Snake Island’s pier. In front of it a silhouette

of the sunken landing boat and further before another landing boat at the anchor.

During the following week however, the Russians managed to bring the reinforcements

to Snake Island. The pontoon with a floating

crane for heavy cargo offloading anchored at

a pier and the landing crafts were able to off

load the self-propelled Tor and Pantsir AA

systems. The satellite images show traces

of smoke near these boats which indicates

that the Ukrainians attempted to stop the

landing by a rocket attack which missed this

time. Snake Island's strategic value means

however that the battle for it will continue.

Fighting in Donbas

The buildings in the center of Snake Island were destroyed by Su-25s’ raid.

In the meantime, the drones were needed elsewhere. During the first third of May the Russian troops repeatedly attempted to cross

the river Siversky Donets near Bilohorivka

west of the North-Donetsk. That would enable them to surround not only North-Donetsk

but Lysychansk and other cities as well. They

built several pontoon bridges on the river

and established some beachheads. All of

it however was destroyed by Ukrainians. The

Russians lost approximately 500 soldiers

and almost hundred armored vehicles. The

drone's primary role however was to guide

the artillery fire.The bridges and beachheads

at Bilohorivka however came under the

attack of the Ukrainian aircraft. According to

some estimates the Ukrainian air force total

inventory was approximately 30 Su-27 and

Mig-29 fighters and ten Su-25 fighter-bombers. During the period in question (April 16May 16) these aircraft were primarily deployed in Donbas fighting.

First shots in 60 years

Bayraktars destroyed four of the Raptor class boats at Snake Island.

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INFO Eduard

The Russian air force continues its operations with an increased number of missions.

There are as many as 250 missions flown

daily. It also continues with the habit to rarely cross the front lines and concentrates on

launching guided missiles from the safety of

its own airspace. The indication that the Russian sources are being depleted is the more

frequent deployment of the older and lower

quality ordnance.

The biggest surprise was the deployment of

Kh-22 missiles (NATO code AS-4 Kitchen)

during the first third of May. A video shows

June 2022