War in Ukraine – Battle of Donbass

From night to Tuesday 1,260 Ukrainian military targets were fired with Russian missiles and artillery along a front about 50 miles in length. This was the first ordeal of trials for the Ukrainian defenders, who were well buried in firm defensive positions. It would likely attempt to attack Russia with a pincer maneuver from Izyum a little south from Kharkiv, in the north, and to the heavily pressured city of Mariupol in the south. The Battle of Donbass is underway, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote, while Russian bombs hit his soldiers, initially to “soften them”.

Both are in Iseum In Mariupol there are large Russian forces better equipped than the Ukrainian defenders. But in this war, there are many more questions than there are answers. Therefore, Russia’s superiority in manpower and firepower should not be decisive in terms of military competence. Russian forces are also under additional mental stress.

It must be completed By conquering all of Donbass by May 9, the day Russia annually celebrates the victory over Hitler’s Germany. In recent years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has increasingly established this day as the Christmas Eve of Russian patriotism. The ability to organize a large-scale victory rally on Red Square in Moscow would be a small victory for Putin in this war, which would otherwise have only presented defeat.

But it is urgent. On Tuesday evening, Ukrainian defenders were still standing at the Azovstal iron plants in the city of Mariupol. The Russian General Staff has reason to be very alarmed that the city has yet to be captured, after nearly eight weeks of intense Russian attacks. However, this city is associated with large Russian forces that, from a military point of view, should have been used for a long time to advance to the west and north.

on the other side The pincer maneuver is not going as the Russians want. In the second division of the Central Front, Izyum, the Ukrainians recaptured three central villages. This means that Russia’s supply lines at Izyum have weakened, and may have been significantly weakened, and we know how poor supply lines earlier in this war had consequences. In what was supposed to be the battle for the capital, Kyiv, the Russian invaders had to withdraw due to tensions in the supply lines, and continuous surprise Ukrainian attacks on the weakened invading forces.

unclear How is the balance of power? Ukraine will have 20,000 defenders in the area. Some sources say that the Russians have 60,000 soldiers ready to attack. The principle of the military office is that attackers need three times as many defenders. In recent weeks, the Ukrainians have also received large shipments of anti-tank weapons from the West. These weapons have proven their effectiveness, and the Russians lost 510 tanks, two thousand armored vehicles and four warships, the most important of which was the flagship “Moscow”, which sank last week. Much of this was destroyed by Ukrainian drones and in an ambush with anti-tank weapons.

With the church as a weapon

Ukrainians have Moreover, there is another obvious advantage. Ukrainian soldiers are motivated in a completely different way from their Russian opponents. They defend what is taken from them, their family, their home and their home. While many Russian soldiers did not even know they were at war—they were lied to—and had no motive whatsoever to fight and die on foreign soil.

But this is new The stage of the war is different from the first. These are the open Ukrainian landscapes to be occupied by the Russian invaders, and not the sleepy towns on the outskirts of the capital, as was the case when the Russians hung around Kyiv. It was a war that called for improvised and inspiring guerrilla warfare. In the still Ukrainian-controlled parts of Donbass, there are open plains where it may be difficult for Ukrainian defenders equipped with anti-tank weapons to hide before attacking the advancing Russians.

the man who The Russian side was blamed for this second phase of the war, and the “butcher from Syria”, General Alexander Dvornikov, who, among other things, bombed the opposition in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest, was silent. Although he had a much larger number of Ukrainian soldiers, Russia also suffered heavy losses, Ukrainians say 20,000 men, Western intelligence believes it was more than 10,000. In addition, all wounded and maimed, which we do not have an overview of.

This also does not stimulate the fighting morale of the Russians.