Details of Engels explosions, situation around Bakhmut and how to counteract "friendship" of Iran and Russia - -Military expert Serhiy Zgurets

The alliance of Russia and Iran

Now everyone is anticipating the arrival of the American Patriot system to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and it is also possible to receive SAMP/T from Italy. These are the weapons that will significantly strengthen Ukrainian air defense, because they can fight ballistic missiles. Such as Russian Iskander missiles and samples of ballistic missiles that Russia is going to buy from Iran. Russia is very much hoping to receive missiles and unmanned systems from Iran, which are already being delivered. But, is it possible to counteract these efforts and this "friendship" between Iran and Russia? What can Ukraine do to find an antidote to this military cooperation?

According to Ihor Semyvolos, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies, Iran is afraid of sanctions because it can no longer ignore them. The uprising in Iran has been going on for 100 days. The situation for the leadership of this state is controlled, but difficult. They need resources, and resources can be given to them by Russia, which provides Iran with cash to meet the needs of the loyal population. At the same time, Iran is tied to the economy and cooperation with other countries. Now, these sanctions are only personal, but recently it was reported that Germany has stopped cooperation with Iran. Only now do we see some changes. It is likely that European pressure on Iran may postpone the delivery of missiles.

On the one hand, Iran is interested in strengthening its subjectivity, so Tehran for a long time feels like a player in the broad geopolitical arena. At the same time, Russia is interested in Iranian weapons, as well as in certain resources and allies, so Russia and Iran are trying to use this new alliance to their advantage.

Situation around Bakhmut

Taras Berezovets, an officer with the First Separate Special Forces Brigade named after Ivan Bohun, noted that the situation near Bakhmut is the same as it was from the first days of the Russian invasion; the enemy is trying to take this city, where all the "stars" have converged, i.e. Prigozhin, Shoigu, and now General Gerasimov. Yesterday, on December 26, a video was released in which 2 Wagner mercenaries directly threaten the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov and foully address him as if he is to blame for the shortage of ammunition in this area because allegedly Wagner mercenaries cannot adequately resist the Ukrainian army. In this city, the interests of both the Russian army and the Wagner PMC, which is fighting for both financial flows and power, have converged, and so far it seems that Prigozhin and the Wagner PMC are winning this battle. Therefore, for Prigozhin, Bakhmut is a personal vendetta, revenge against the Ukrainian army. He seeks to capture the city to avenge the losses suffered by his mercenaries. And also to take revenge on his opponents in the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Everything overlapped.

Berezovets said that Russian forces are constantly attacking with assault groups, sometimes dozens of times on the same Ukrainian positions. They are using Wagner infantry fighting vehicles, mobiles, artillery and aviation to take positions in this city. The enemy was able to reach the southern and southeastern outskirts of Bakhmut as far as possible, entrenched in the triangle. They were driven out of most previously occupied streets last week. Small Russian groups continue to be on the outskirts of the city. But even the small progress they could achieve with terrible efforts 2 weeks ago is gone now.

According to the Armed Forces officer, Russian forces are wearing out. Also, the enemy is experiencing a shortage of ammunition for its own artillery, so we may have a certain advantage. But in no way does this mean that the danger has passed. Unfortunately, no. The enemy will continue new attempts, they have virtually unlimited manpower, so they will not stop, throwing own troops into suicidal attacks. This is what we call the Bakhmut Express, because the enemy manpower is constantly replenished.

Explosions at the Engels-2 airfield

Let us return to the powerful explosions near the military airfield Engels-2, Saratov region, Russia, where unmanned systems were used to destroy Russian strategic bombers.

Oleh Katkov, military expert, editor-in-chief of Defence Express, commented that there is extremely dense cloud cover over the Engels airfield, which reaches more than 90%. Most likely, we will not receive satellite images with optical range, or they will appear after Russian forces have time to cover all traces and pretend that nothing happened. There is information that up to 5 Tu-95 MS bombers were damaged, and there is a significant number of dead and injured.

Thanks to satellite images in the radar range, which were taken 4 hours after the incident, we can say that the explosions indeed took place.

In the northern part of the airfield, you can see the accumulation of aircraft and other objects: there were about 20 aircraft at the Engels air base.

In the images, we are looking for objects with a wingspan of 50 meters, and we can tell how many planes there were. There are vehicles next to the aircraft. These may be fire trucks, or they may be support vehicles.

On the surveillance cameras’ video that recorded the sound, you can hear a large-scale explosion and more than one. At first, one explosion is heard, and half a second later an even bigger one. Perhaps these explosions occurred at a time when cruise missiles were being prepared and charged. Several Tu-95 aircraft could have suffered significant damage.