Posted on 03/25/2023 1:20:41 AM PDT by Cronos
The initial upper hand gained by the Russian forces in Bakhmut, the Ukrainian city which Moscow has spent months trying to capture, seems to have fizzled out as Kyiv’s counteroffensive has been successful in stalling the advances made by Kremlin.
On Friday, Ukraine's commander in chief Lt Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in a Facebook post that the situation in the eastern city is “stabilising”.
Acknowledging that the situation on Ukraine's frontlines "is the toughest in the Bakhmut direction”, Lt Gen Zaluzhnyi said that due to the “tremendous efforts” of the Ukrainian forces “we are managing to stabilise the situation".
He posted on the social media network after briefing the UK's Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, about the situation in Ukraine.
In recent months, the eastern city has become the centre of the biggest battle between Russia and Ukraine. For Moscow, Bakhmut is a key target in its plans to fully capture the industrialised eastern region of Donbas.
However, the long-drawn-out war yielded little results for the Russian offensive despite losing thousands of troops.
On Thursday, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, claimed that Russian forces were "exhausted" near Bakhmut, reports BBC.
He added that Russia is “losing significant strength", though it "has not given up hope of taking Bakhmut at all costs despite losses in manpower and equipment”.
"Very soon we will take advantage of this opportunity, like we did near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliya and Kupiansk," he was quoted as saying, referring to successful Ukrainian counter-offensives last year.
However, despite Ukraine’s assertion that Moscow’s attack was flagging near Bakhmut, the Russian forces launched new assaults in the northern and southern stretches of the front in the Donbas region.
Heavy fighting was reported in the northern sector along a stretch of front running from Lyman to Kupiansk as well as in the south at Avdiivka on the outskirts of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.
(With inputs from agencies)
You said nukes, you think that Russia can start launching nuclear missiles in Europe without it spreading, where does all that fallout go, how do defense systems know that the missiles being launched are going to THAT city and not THIS city?
NATO is tolerant but they are going to ignore a nuclear attack being launched on their borders and poisoning and killing their people and nations?
>>Not only was your hero (now a low ranking publicity hound) Weaselly Clark’s planner, but those plans included bombing civilians - something for which your beloved Russians are going as ongoing war crimes.
Read post 53, bonehead.
Mr. Kalamata
>>Sad how the Putinists love their war criminals (Macgregor) and their pedos (Ritter).
Nice smear! Are you auditioning for a job at CNN?
Mr. Kalamata
If the Russian bombs airburst, there won’t be any fallout. Ground bursts are dirty, airbursts are FAR, FAR less so
Don’t get so carried away with fantasy.
Russia is already being ruined, they don’t want to start a nuclear war.
“Xi snubbed Putin after their summit, calling a meeting of Central Asian countries as part of an audacious power play”
“China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has called a meeting of former-Soviet Central Asian countries, in an audacious power play in Russia’s backyard the week of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Xi invited the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to the first China-Central Asia summit on Wednesday, the AFP news agency reported. It remains unclear whether the reclusive state of Turkmenistan has been invited.
The states are all former members of the Soviet Union, and Moscow has long regarded them as being in its sphere of influence after the then-Russian Empire conquered them in the 19th century.”
Ok, and? What does that have to do with the topic under discussion? If Russia IS being ruined, as you claim, then they’d be more likely to fire their nukes at whoever is ruining them.
Russia is being ruined internally and internationally, they need to concentrate on internal affairs, and China and trying to hold their nation together.
The last thing they need is to attempt to introduce to the world the normalization of nuclear weapons for conquering neighbors and to continue the Ukraine debacle.
yes - every day or two I checkout moonofalabama and among the comments find interesting links, like this one.
I don’t yet hear any appetite for ceasefire from among ordinary Ukrainians. They feel that Putin will use the ceasefire just to prepare to attack again , so better to keep fighting until he is pushed out.
But at the same time, the West will be able to give Ukraine tanks, artillery, maybe even F-15s. Ukraine did not have that much on February 24, 2022 but they were able to survive the first day of the invasion with the best equipment and training the Russians had at the time. Now? They've lost all of their VDK paratroopers. All of their tanks are gone. They still have a lot of artillery. They can't use their planes or helicopters due to Ukrainian missile defense system.
True. But the perception is of an ever lurking danger
The problem is that Putin is not going to give up. The Russians are pretty much numb to suffering. Usually, they do not reach their breaking point (WWI was a notable exception).
"By the second winter, the boots had worn out... but the line still held. Even Comrade Lenin underestimated both the anguish of that 900-mile long front... as well our own cursed capacity for suffering. Half the men went into action without any arms... irregular rations... led by officers they didn't trust." - Yevgraf Zhivago
I don’t think you fully understand some things that are being played out. The world “leaders” are deciding the future of the world. You don’t get a voice and apparently neither does Russia. China is still trying to find out if it does. The evil going on is giant. The world “leaders” turned Germany off, yes off, just to prevent them from possibly going neutral. So yes Russia could decide to move the cost and pain to nuclear. The question you should ask is what would be their target and delivery method. Another would be who is running thing these days and how much control do they have.
Don’t quit your day job.
The decadent West or the Russian gulag? Not much of a choice. But I pick the West in this one. It's a shame because for a while, it looked like Putin was a reformer in Russia. But he decided to throw it all away.
Putin is losing either way. And you are right that he can’t give up or he gets hung.
Russians are complaining. The colleagues I have in Moscow, well we don’t discuss the war or politics, and i suspect they are lightly pro Putin, anyway, even they are saying things like “our leaders need to re evaluate”, of course no mention of the Tsar, no mo. But even that statement is pretty surprising coming from them.
The longer the war drags on, the more Russians will be like 1917.
I think you have to assume at the start, that Russia had issues with the status quo.
1. Biden pushing the threat of Ukraine joining Nato. You can argue all you want that Biden was speaking out of both sides of his mouth, ie behind the scenes he’s saying he would never allow them into Nato.
2. Ukrainian mafia, nazis et al reaping havoc on the Eastern Ukraine Russian communities.
Both issues could have been negotiated before any war. Trump certainly would have brokered a resolution to this before war. There’s also evidence that Russia and Ukraine did discuss these issues and talked about no war, BUT OUR GOV’T AND IT INCLUDES THE GOP, PUSHED FOR WAR.
IN summary, McGregor was right. This could have been totally avoided. Now the end will clearly be, when the fighting stops, Russia will hold Crimea and will gain the Eastern Provences.
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