Judging by the huge pocket Vlad is isolating and closing, the war cheerleaders should prepare for another Mariupol x 10….with no usable roads nor vehicles for the Ukies to utilize in an organized retreat and Ivan’s devastating artillery, I expect NOT a slaughter but instead mass surrender by Ukies.
But of course the western MSM will never report ( nor is) the huge amounts of Ukies being taken off the field by KIA, WIA, MIA, POW, Desertions, Illness, and Surrender.
Biden’s desperate wishes of trying to weaken Vlad down to the last Ukie soldier is demilitarizing the Ukies. Do remember, wars always end….and it appears the Ukies will have only Grandma’s and children left when hostilities do cease.
The troops that escape the current cauldron are leaving fortified positions that were built from 2014 until last year.
Many or most of the best-trained and combat-experienced UAF soldiers are dead or otherwise out of the fight (wounded or captured.)
Their fallback positions are only cities, not prepared entrenchments, bunkers etc. The rapid collapse of Lysychansk shows that there won’t be any more bitter Mariupol battles to the end.
The new UAF troops are conscripts rushed into battle. They won’t stand and fight like the Azovites in Mariupol. Where they do stand and fight, in cities, Russians will bypass them where possible and cut them off from resupply.
Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odessa are on the table. If Kiev doesn’t negotiate soon, they will lose all Black Sea access.
MSM coverage of this war has almost vanished, as the press corps salivates and the TV yakking heads swoon over the latest Tokyo Rose, aka Cassidy Hutchinson, as she wrestles the headlines away from Zelensky.
Ah, the fickle finger of fate!