Twice In 2 Days, Russian Troops Gathered For Inspection. Twice In 2 Days, Ukraine Missiles Massacred Them

At least 120 Russian soldiers killed by their commanders' disregard for basic Ukrainian air attack safety protocols.

No, the Russian Army is still not a learning organization. JL 

David Axe reports in Forbes:

The first strike, on Tuesday, targeted soldiers from the Russian army’s 39th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade in Trudivs'ke in eastern Ukraine. Two companies of infantry had lined up along with their commander, Col. G. Musaev, so that Maj. Gen. Oleg Lvovich Moiseev, commander of the 29th Combined Arms Army, could address them. a Ukrainian drone arrived overhead, and a HIMARS opened fire. The very next day two, separate formations from the 328th Air Assault Regiment, 810th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade and 81st Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment assembled in Oleshky 20 miles south of the Ukrainian marine corps’ bridgehead in Krynky, on the left bank of the Dnipro River. A Ukrainian drone located them. Ukrainian artillery—perhaps HIMARS—took aim.

Russian regiments and brigades have a bad habit of assembling their troops out in the open, in broad daylight, just 10 or 20 miles from the front line of Russia’s two-year wider war on Ukraine. Either for training or for inspection by some high-ranking officer.

Ten or 20 miles is well within range of Ukraine’s American-made M30/31 rockets: the main munition of the wheeled High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher.

So it should come as no surprise that, twice in two days, the Ukrainians have spotted—by drone, it seems—and bombarded these gatherings. Reportedly scores of Russians died.

The first strike, on Tuesday, targeted soldiers from the Russian army’s 39th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade in Trudivs'ke in eastern Ukraine. Two companies of infantry had lined up along with their commander, Col. G. Musaev, so that Maj. Gen. Oleg Lvovich Moiseev, commander of the 29th Combined Arms Army, could address them.

Moiseev reportedly was en route when a Ukrainian drone arrived overhead, and a HIMARS opened fire. The front line is just 20 miles to the west, around Vuhledar. A HIMARS can lob GPS-guided M30/31 rockets, each packed with 182,000 tungsten balls, as far as 57 miles.

Video and photos shot by the survivors depict heaps of dead Russians. Reportedly 65 soldiers died, including Musaev. “They lined them up in an open field,” one survivor groused as he recorded the carnage. “Fucking commanders.”

Don’t ever accuse the Russian military of learning from its mistakes. Not quickly, at least. The very next day, Wednesday, two groups of Russian troops again gathered out in the open for training and inspection.

The two separate formations from the 328th Air Assault Regiment, 810th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade and 81st Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment assembled in the Oleshky Sands National Nature Park just 20 miles south of the Ukrainian marine corps’ bridgehead in Krynky, on the left bank of the Dnipro River

A Ukrainian drone located them. Ukrainian artillery—perhaps HIMARS—took aim. Another 60 or so Russians reportedly died.

Amid the blood and bodies, there’s good reason for the Russians to hope for relief. The United States is the main supplier of M30/31 rockets for Ukraine’s roughly three dozen HIMARS, and Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress have blocked further U.S. aid to Ukraine since October.

The rockets eventually will run out. At which point it will be a lot safer for Russian troops to mill around in the open during the daytime within drone- and rocket-range of the front line.