Victory Chronicles
-DAY 174

Above:  Wagner headquarters in Popasna was targeted from a social media post showing the address in upper left corner. Photo via BBC

Below: Wagner headquarters in Popasna, Luhansk Oblast, after Ukrainian shelling.  Photo via Mil.in.UA

• A big fan of the russia-based Wager mercenary group was excited to post photos of his meeting with the heroes at their headquarters in Popasna, Luhansk Oblast.  Did he miss the fact that the street address was visible in the photos?  In any event, the information was useful to Ukrainian defenders who entered it  into artillery system coordinates and leveled the headquarters.

• Photos were published online of rescue operations of injured persons inside the premises that were located in a multi-story residential building.  Popasna was on the line for contact in Ukrainian controlled territory for the last eight years.

Above:  Ukrainian soldiers positioned on the frontlines near Mykolaiv.  Photo via RFERL

• In southern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces have used longer-range artillery to destroy enemy transportation routes, ammo and fuel storages.  Partisans have sewn terror among occupying authorities with a series of assasinations.  But Ukrainian forces in the trenches along the front are tied down, unable to take the initiative for lack of heavy weaponry.

• “Without question we need a counteroffensive, I sincerely believe it will come,” an officer told the New York Times from his base in Mykolaiv.  “We need the advantage in numbers, we need the advantage in heavy weapons. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a problem for us.”

• In an interview with RBK-Ukraine, General Dmytro Marchenko asked the people to be patient, waiting for the build up of heavy weapons, particularly when the US Lend-Lease program goes into effect this fall.  “We have not forgotten about them, no one will abandon our people and we will come to help them, but they need to wait a little longer,” stated General Marchenko.

Above:  Big explosions in Crimea were captured on camera on Tuesday morning including an ammo depot, warehouses and electrical transformer station.  Photo via Mil.in.UA

• Ukrainian awoke on Tuesday morning to the news of more huge explosions and fires in north central Crimea near the town of Dzhankoy. Dzhankoy is located on an important transportation corridor leading from Kerch through the narrow neck of northern Crimea.

• Video shows a series of explosions in rapid succession causing military analysts to suspect a coordinated partisan operation. The New York Times reported that an anonymous military source attributed the explosions to special operations forces behind enemy lines. Ru defense ministry called it “an act of sabotage.”

• Later in the morning, locals reported clouds of black smoke rising over a ru air base in Gvardeyskoye near Simferopol, Crimea.  The explosions set off another panicked wave of people fleeing the peninsula of the Kerch Bridge according to the Head of the Crimean Tatars, Refat Chubarov.