HISTORY

decorated as well. During the attack on

the Ozerne airport in Zhitomir region he

drew the enemy fire on himself to enable

the other airplanes to fly to safety. He was

shot down during this action. These two

events are older news, taking place prior to the last month. During the reporting

period however the loss of Maj. Oleksandr

Kukurba, Su-25 pilot form 299th brigade

of the Tactical Aviation can be confirmed.

In April he was decorated as Hero of

Ukraine and was killed on July 26 during

his 100th combat mission.

The losses mounted on the Russian side

as well. On July 17 the Su-34 carrying bort

number red 51 and code RF-95890 was

shot down near Alchevsk in Luhansk region. Highly probably it was hit by a friendly

AA fire and the gossip goes that it was the

first confirmed combat “success” of the

S-400 system. Two days later, on July 19

another Sukhoi was shot down near New

Khakhovka in Kherson region, this time by

the Ukrainian AA fire. The exact type remains unknown, but a pilot ejected before

the airplane crashed.

Also, several Russian drones were destroyed, and the images appeared of the

Russian Su-25 and Su-30SM wrecks

which had been shot down earlier but not

recorded. The Ukrainians also claimed

hits on several Ka-52 helicopters. During

the weekend of August 13 and 14 three of

them were supposed to be shot down. Only

two helicopters of this type can be confirmed to have been hit, however. According

to the Ukrainians the experienced pilot,

Col Vassilyi Kleshchenko supposedly died

in one of them. On May 9, 2021, he led the

helicopter formation during the Red Square military parade. An interesting trend

in the significant drop in the Russian

attacks by the ballistic cruising missiles is

being observed.

After the attack on Saki airbase the

Russians, as always took revenge by shelling the Ukrainian civilian targets – even

though they themselves stated Ukraine

had nothing to do with it. They took the

same course of action after the loss of the

cruiser Moscow or blown-up ammunition

dumps, caused by “unfortunate accident”.

At that time the Ukrainian cities were targeted by the salvos of the guided missiles launched from the bombers. This time

the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, on

the opposite bank of Dnipro River across

the Zaporozhiye nuclear power station

were bombarded. The unguided missiles

launched from the Grad rocket launchers were used. For over a month the

Russians did not fire a single Kh-22 rocket

even though previously they used these

antiquated missiles from 1960s at a large

scale. Only after the second attack on Crimea, on August 16 they fired two Kh-22

rockets from Tu-22M3 bomber at the region near Odessa. Maybe they found them

forgotten somewhere … The more modern

34

INFO Eduard

missiles are being used less and what is

important that the Ukrainian AA defense

managed to shoot down more and more of

them.

A storm arrived

On August 29 it did happen. Announced

long before the Ukrainian counter-offensive was launched in the South in Kherson region. The Ukrainian troops started

to advance simultaneously in three directions and at majority of locations they managed to breech the first, in some places

even the second line of Russian defense.

Several villages were liberated for example

Vysokopylya in the North of the Kherson

region. It was fortified and it was supposed

that the Russian elite paratrooper units

could hold it for a long time. Ultimately,

they were chased away by the Ukrainian

troops which, according to the Russian

propaganda were crushed right after they

launched the attack. The best answer to

it was that the Ukrainian crushed the

Russian defense. HARM rockets limited the

Russian AA defense to the point that the

Bayraktar TB2 drones could freely operate again. New videos they recorded show

how they destroy the Russian equipment.

The Air Forces of both sides were highly

active attacking at the frontline especially

in the central sector of the Kherson region where the Ukrainians scored some success. HIMARS rockets repeatedly hit and

eliminated all bridges over Dnieper River.

Thanks to this they prevented supplies

Wreck of the shot down Russian drone Orlan-10

of reinforcements and ammunition as well

as retreat of the Russian troops. Those

ended up trapped on the Dnieper right

bank and were fired at while attempting to

cross the river over the pontoon bridges.

In the beginning of September, the Ukrainians took advantage of the fact that the

Russians concentrated all their reinforcements and focus on the South and launched the massive attack on the opposite end

of the frontline – in Kharkov area.

To be continued.

The Russian Su-25 in flight over Ukraine.

Wreck of the Su-34 coded RF-95890 shot down on July 17 near Alchevsk.

October 2022