02 Dec: More Russians Refused to Fight. General Killed on a Mine Laid by Russian Soldiers. - Reporting from Ukraine

Day 647: Dec 02

Today, there are a lot of updates from the Kherson region.

Here, Ukrainian forces are actively taking advantage of the problems inside the Russian army and continue advancing. The biggest problem for Russians is that the conflict between their soldiers and commanders started to grow, and since a group of Russian soldiers refused to follow the order to attack Ukrainian positions on the islands, the revolt has spread to other detachments that are operating along the river bank.

At the moment, the most intense clashes are taking place in the forest. Russian sources reported that Ukrainians firmly entrenched their positions, which is why their efforts to dislodge Ukrainian forces from the eastern bank of the river have been unsuccessful. Russian aviation and artillery units continue heavily striking the area, but, nonetheless, Russian drone footage confirms that Ukrainian marines are conducting offensive operations southwest of Krynky.

A Russian fighter that is operating in the forest reported that the fighting is very heavy, and that a friendly airborne unit tried to assault Ukrainian positions just before them but failed and only 7 out of 30 soldiers survived. He noted that Ukrainians are heavily relying on artillery and reconnaissance drone operators and admitted that the coordination between them is on a very high level. He also noted that the fire support from the Russian side is minimal and said that the airstrikes are conducted blindly because his drone operators do not even have the means to communicate reconnaissance. He was discouraged by the heavy losses incurred by his own friendly units and said that they would rather try their luck to entrench and hold defense instead of attacking Ukrainian positions as ordered.

Another problem faced by the Russian assault units became their own mines. As it turned out, the minefields were prepared by completely different detachments that were redeployed to other regions long ago. Due to the fact that Russian commanders have not properly coordinated with assault units about the locations of these minefields, a lot of Russians died on Russian mines. This served as a precedent for the Russian soldiers from the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade to join the group of soldiers that refused to fight, as reported last time. They said that only their detachment lost more than half a hundred men by exploding on Russian minefields. In fact, the problem is so bad that even a Russian general reportedly died on a mine. At first, it was said that he died near Krynky from machine gun fire, but later it was confirmed that it was actually a mine that killed him.

Russian soldiers from the 1822nd Battalion also complained about the situation and said that they were continuously ordered to capture islands in the Dnipro River Delta despite suffering heavy losses and being allowed minimal casualty evacuations. As a result, all the abovementioned soldiers refused to conduct assaults on Ukrainian positions due to a lack of artillery coordination, tactical intelligence transmission, and proper communication about the location of Russian minefields.

Moreover, Russian soldiers who actually followed the order to assume positions on the islands filmed a video to show where they were positioned. The map of the commander did not account for the tide, so the incoming water flooded their positions, and they lost almost all equipment. The soldier said that staying there is unbearable and that he is so tired that he doesn’t care anymore that Ukrainian drones might see and kill him.

Russian commanders reportedly became afraid of the prevalent refusal to follow orders, and launched a hunt on those who originally voiced their complaints, causing a chain reaction throughout the whole front.

In the meantime, Ukrainian forces continued attacking. As mentioned last time, during the period of bad weather that did not allow Russians to conduct aerial reconnaissance and strikes, Ukrainians replenished their supplies, rotated personnel, and deployed reinforcements.

In order to facilitate the movement of the infantry, Ukrainian drone operators are focusing on destroying Russian equipment. Recently released footage shows how Ukrainians managed to identify and destroy yet another heavy thermobaric artillery system. Another video shows the destruction of a Russian tank that was involved in the counterattack southeast of the settlement.