Maxim wrote on Twitter under the headline: “What did I do to destroy the Russian pontoon bridge”, explaining that on May 6 he was sent to the river for engineering intelligence after intelligence reports of gathering Russian troops from the other side. “I explored the area and suggested a place where the Russians could try to build a pontoon bridge to reach the other side,” Maxim wrote, using rangefinders to estimate the river’s width at 80 meters, requiring eight platforms every ten meters. to embrace it.
“With this flow of the river, I knew they would need motorized boats to build such a bridge and it would take them at least two hours,” he said, passing the information to his commanders, adding: “Also, I told the department, who watches this part of the river that you have to watch out for the sound of motor boats. Visibility was poor in the area because the Russians set fire to fields and forests and threw many smoke grenades. It was foggy on top of everything. ”
“They had to hear the sound. And they did it early on the morning of May 8. Exactly where I said. And I was there to check it out – and I saw with my drone how the Russians were building the pontoon bridge. It shall be reported immediately to the commanders. “
He, Maxim boasted, had “outplayed” Russian military engineers because her engineers “tried to build a bridge EXACTLY where I guessed.”
Russian forces managed to set up the pontoon and troops and vehicles began to move through it. At that moment, Maxim said, “the battle has begun.”
Twenty minutes after the reconnaissance team confirmed the existence of the Russian bridge, heavy artillery began shelling its location. According to reports, the 17th Panzer Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, operating T-64 tanks and BMP armored vehicles, opened fire using its 122mm 2C1 chain howitzers.
The shelling destroyed Russian T-72 and T-80 tanks and two dozen armored tracked vehicles, as well as bridge equipment and a tug. “I was still in the area and I have never seen / heard such heavy fighting in my life,” Maxim said.
As Russian troops are blocked on the wrong side of the river, engineers are trying to build a second pontoon to save them. This was also blown up, with drone footage showing two platforms trapped on the river bank on the Russian side, but not going anywhere.
“Their strategic goal was to cross the river and then surround Lisichansk. They failed terribly, “Maxim said, citing reports of about 1,500 soldiers killed. The death toll was probably lower, but the casualties are still high for the open Russian battalion, which was subjected to heavy bombing.
Bridges can take on a deeper meaning in war. Think of the Kwai Bridge (and the brutal treatment of British prisoners of war building the Burma railway) or the Bridge Too Far, which depicts in battle the battle for control of the Arnhem Bridges. The bridge over the Donets can still go down in history as the best evidence so far of the Kremlin’s military failures in Ukraine.
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