Posted on 05/03/2023 3:55:23 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
Explosions hit Russian targets in and near occupied Crimea overnight into Wednesday, as Ukraine appeared to be intensifying attacks on Russian military strongholds ahead of an expected counteroffensive.
In Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014, drones struck a border guard post in Simferopol on Tuesday night, according to photos and video shared on social media and geolocated by Radio Liberty, a U.S. government-funded broadcaster. Ukraine did not directly claim responsibility for the incident, but Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesman, Andriy Chernyak, said in a statement on Wednesday morning: “Of course, the enemy must be cut off from Crimea.”
Just east of Crimea, inside Russian territory in the village of Volna, the Russian authorities reported an explosion at a fuel depot after a drone attack before dawn on Wednesday. Videos showed dark smoke rising from a fire visible on the nearby bridge linking Crimea to Russia.
Russian state media reported that the fire was caused by a drone falling on the oil facility, in Russia’s Krasnodar region.
Ukrainian forces have attacked for months inside Crimea, a key hub for Russia’s military occupation of southern Ukraine, but the assaults have increased in recent days as Kyiv carries out what its officials describe as the final stages of planning for a counteroffensive to take back seized territory.
U.S. officials say the Ukrainian military has been bolstered by training and equipment from Western allies. Gen. Mark Milley, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the United States and NATO allies have helped train and supply about nine Ukrainian brigades, including some light infantry units that are prepared to conduct both offensive and defensive operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
bkmk
destroy the bridge to crimea
A VIEW FROM THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS
As Mark Wauck summarizes “Ukraine’s professional military knows that the offensive would be suicidal. Ukrainian losses of manpower continue to be extremely heavy—Russia is claiming that Ukraine lost 15,000 men in April. Losses of equipment are reaching catastrophic levels as well, as Russian attacks have heavily targeted assembly areas for munitions and equipment.”
If Zelensky’s cowardice allows America’s foreign policy neocon scum to push Ukraine into a doomed offensive, it will be the most wasted effusion of blood yet in this catastrophic “proxy war.” And it will be the most disgraceful ending possible to the Neocon’s 30 years “forever war” that dropped the United States from a half century illusion of dominant hegemony to an also ran with an obsolete defense establishment and a wrecked economy, all in less than 2 years..
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