Posted on 05/29/2022 8:21:45 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
Russian President Vladimir Putin is inflicting unspeakable suffering on Ukrainians and demanding horrible sacrifices of his own people in an effort to seize a city that does not merit the cost, even for him.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine that aimed to seize and occupy the entire country has become a desperate and bloody offensive to capture a single city in the east while defending important but limited gains in the south and east. Ukraine has twice forced Putin to define down his military objectives. Ukraine defeated Russia in the Battle of Kyiv, forcing Putin to reduce his subsequent military objectives to seizing Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine stopped him from achieving that aim as well, forcing him to focus on completing the seizure of Luhansk Oblast alone. Putin is now hurling men and munitions at the last remaining major population center in that oblast, Severodonetsk, as if taking it would win the war for the Kremlin. He is wrong. When the Battle of Severodonetsk ends, regardless of which side holds the city, the Russian offensive at the operational and strategic levels will likely have culminated, giving Ukraine the chance to restart its operational-level counteroffensives to push Russian forces back.
(Excerpt) Read more at understandingwar.org ...
Russian forces pressed the ground assault on Severodonetsk and its environs, making limited gains.
Russian forces in Kharkiv continue to focus efforts on preventing a Ukrainian counteroffensive from reaching the international border between Kharkiv and Belgorod.
Ukrainian forces began a counteroffensive near the Kherson-Mykolaiv oblast border approximately 70 km to the northeast of Kherson City that may have crossed the Inhulets River.
Russia’s use of stored T-62 tanks in the southern axis indicates Russia’s continued materiel and force generation problems.
Ukrainian partisan activity continues to impose costs on Russian occupation forces in Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts.
Isw has been pretty accurate in their assessments. They a lag a little but thats ok. They also list references for their info.
Back when I was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Fort Knox Armor School in fall of 1977, I enjoyed learning about Warsaw Pact equipment like T62s, T64s, and T72s. I thought such knowledge was obsolete, but the Russians are bringing out all the nostalgic equipment for this insane invasion.
https://thedreizinreport.com/2022/05/28/what-the-hell-is-going-on-here/
On May 27th, Saint Zelensky accused Russia of committing “genocide” in the Donbass (the Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk provinces, a.k.a. the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples’ Republics.)
The Western press agencies picked it up and made headlines out of it, because, what else are they to do?
For them, if Saint Z said it, it’s news.
Let’s see what the locals have to say.
The below two videos (both evidently taken by Russian or Donetsk soldiers) are from the town of Svetlodarsk, the center of a massively fortified, Ukrainian salient in Donetsk territory since 2014 or 2015.
The town was evacuated (without a fight) by Ukrainian forces a few days ago, after coming under threat of encirclement from the northeast.
The ladies from 0:00 to around 0:14 are saying, among other things, “Yes, of course we waited (for you)” and (the smiling blonde in the pink cream coat) “Everyone wants to see, hug, and kiss you!”
The ladies from around 0:15 to 0:26 are also elated. The one on the right says, “We awaited you for so long.”
Then, the man behind them says (rough translation, cannot be translated literally), “You made it here, good job guys… Wonderful, wonderful.”
The older folks starting from 0:27, also seem pleased. The white-haired lady says (rough translation, to get the point across), “Well, you know what we had to live with here.”
The man next to her adds, “So we waited, waited with impatience. On (satellite?) TV, we watch Russian channels, and (we track where is the) theater of military operations, where is it, where is it moving to… Like generals who track where the forces are, where they will pass… We sweated for every soldier, for all of them.”
I’m sorry, I can’t process this. What did this guy say? He sounds like he’s speaking from occupied France in late summer 1944, awaiting the Yanks with a bottle of champagne that he had buried under his chicken coop when the Krauts moved into town. There is smoke coming out of my ears, and I don’t think it’s from my fourth booster shot.
This article is deeply silly.
A very different point of view:
https://kunstler.com/podcast/kunstlercast-358-a-conversation-about-ukraine-with-larry-c-johnson/
The up-to-16,000 figure (above) is up from my prior 8000-9000 figure. This reflects current estimates from Russian war correspondents on the ground.
Russian forces now physically control at least three kilometers (likely quite a bit more) of the main road running through Soledar into the Ukrainian army bastion at Lisichansk.
Krasnyi Liman is now fully under Russian control.
Large columns of Russian hardware were seen passing north through (or near) Lugansk, evidently to seal the deal around Severodonetsk-Lisichansk.
At least one video per day is coming out of Ukrainian units (mostly, of the Territorial Defense militia) justifying their retreat and/or promising to no longer fight under the given awful conditions (no heavy weapons, no clear guidance or direction, no medical support, etc. etc.) The cannon-fodder is getting restless.
(It appears likely that various fools in the Kiev area have hogged all those generously-donated NATO antitank weapons, as those things clearly are not being supplied to Territorial Defense battalions deployed to the east. This is what happens when you just hand the junk out with no controls.
Saint Zelensky has admitted to casualties of as high as 100 dead per day. (The truth usually comes out, one way or another.)
So, let me put this into context. Russia is fighting across a broad front and is taking on Urkrainian troops crouching in heavily fortified trenches and bunkers. Since the start of the “Special Military Operation” aka invasion on February 24th, Russia has taken most of the southern coast of Ukraine. The battle for Mariupol stands as the most consequential urban battle of the 21st century. At the same time, Russia and the militias of the Republics of Donetsk and Luhnask are nearing the complete defeat of Ukrainian forces based in the Donbas.
Besides Mariupol, Russia has taken control of major cities in the Donbas and adjacent regions, such as Vasilevka in the Zaporozhye region, Kherson, Lyman, Popasna. Russia now has surrounded Sievierodonetsk and trapped several thousand Ukrainian troops. My point? Russia has accomplished this against well armed, NATO trained forces fighting from defensive positions. The Ukrainians had artillery and some drones/missiles. Russia has achieved all of this in less than two months.
Ukraine’s former foreign minister (Poroshenko?) was caught at a border crossing, attempting to flee the country. Ditto for a high-ranking judge.
the Russians are bringing out all the nostalgic equipment for this insane invasion.
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You’ll really get excited when they break out the T-34s in a month or two ...
When is the next Battle of Kursk?
The battle group consisting of UA 35 NB, 63rd, and a few from 28th made it 10km behind Orc lines to Brucinske, unclear what actual situation is - was UA driven out of did they just stop there? Offensive following road to get to Crimean fresh water supply. Even if successful, not that big a deal militarily.
Immediate objective is Beryslav on the Dnipro River. Then try to capture the bridge-dam, but Orcs may be fast enough to blow it. If the Orcs blow the bridge and flood a lot of land under their control, it will be extremely difficult to supply their troops in the area and to recapture the whole area from Zolota Balka to Kherson. As a result all Orc troops will have to be evacuated.
Great actors they are! Almost as good as the ones around Mariupol’ a few month a ago.
ISW is only useful when you want to get all the Uke propaganda in a single article!
Besides all the hyperbole, your relating of Sievierodonetsk must be totally from Orc propaganda as the city is nowhere nohow surrounded
So, your source is KGB production studios. I can cite opposite evidence all day from my family and friends in the Donbas. Get real. Putin does not care about “liberating” anybody. He is making a land grab and it matters not to him how many guileless Russian lads are killed and he does not care how many brave Ukrainians are killed. The decision to invade was on Putin. He is responsible for the fake “separatist” movement, the Mafia tactics used, the green suits appearing everywhere and then the full-scale invasion. He decided to grab a piece of the Republic of Georgia before taking chunks of Ukraine and he’ll grab more from the Baltic states after Ukraine if he is not stopped.
And forcing petty administrators in the Donbas to join the party “United Russia” does not sound much like an “independent” republic, does it?
A week or two ago I replied to another poster who asked what I had thought of the situation in the east.
I told him that since Zlensky is in control of the whole of the Ukrainian forces, and being himself controlled by the radicals surrounding him, he will commit the same mistake that were committed in WW2.
He will pour even more troops into the salient in the Sievierodonetsk pocket and risk them being cut off. Its a classic example of a self aggrandized idiot caring nothing for the overall view of the front...HOLD AT ALL COSTS! Kiev, Stalingrad, the Faliese gap, the Battle of the Bulge come to mind during WW2.
What should have been done? Withdraw those troops OUT of that pocket, set up a new line of defense, attack and force the Russians BACK across the Dnieper river in the south, and send in an invasion force INTO Russia in the north. The latter would be a kamikaze operation only to scare the Russians into putting troops there to stop it. Then, proceed with cease fire talks and negotiate for a settlement.
Hold here...fake left, and run right.
Now they have nearly NO ability to do any of that.
Zelensky is a dead man walking. He will be forced out of power through a coup by the top military commander, and most likely assassinated by those radicals around him.
When is the next Battle of Kursk?
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Silly question.
Kazan is the name of a city in RuZZia.
Is that where you live?
“The battle for Mariupol stands as the most consequential urban battle of the 21st century.”
Mosul was much bigger - the biggest since urban battle Stalingrad. It was the strategic defeat of ISIS in Iraq.
Aleppo had about ten times the population of Mariupol.
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