Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Capt.'s avatar

War is ruthless. Painting a swastika on stomach of a woman civilian in mariopul is far more ruthless & a war crime. Azov are horrific mthf.

Expand full comment
Russian Observer's avatar

A disappointing article. Let's just take one issue. About urgent relocation of Russain troops from the north of Ukraine to the southeast.

The reason is very simple: the Seversky Donets - Donbass 134 kilometers long canal begins in Slavyansk, located in the valley of the Kazenny Torets River (a tributary of the Seversky Donets). This canal supplies water to the entire eastern and southern parts of Donetsk region.

Water shortages in Donetsk have been going on for almost seven years now - and if Mariupol, which was under Kiev's control, had not also needed this canal for its water, it would have been shut off by Kiev long time ago (because it cares so much about citizens of Donbass).

Now that the final capture of Mariupol is a done deal, the Kiev authorities have completely blocked water supply to Donbass. In Donetsk itself, there are only 8-10 days of reserves left, even with extremely tight control over water consumption - and if Slavyansk is not taken in two weeks at most, humanitarian hell will break out in Donbass.

At the same time, there is no question of a total evacuation of the entire population - no more than 250 thousand people were taken to Russia over the past month. This is only 1/12th of all residents of Donbass. So there just won't be time to move everyone out. It is also unrealistic to expect that Russia can truck in the necessary amount of water, and therefore, it is urgently necessary to take Slavyansk under the control of the DPR and Russia.

The nearest grouping with the necessary amount of equipment and military personnel turned out to be Russian troops near Kiev and Chernihiv, and as soon as the picture of the impending humanitarian catastrophe became clear, the General Staff sent the grouping to the east. After the capture of Slavyansk, these troops are likely to return to their previous positions,and by that time the formation will be significantly strengthened by the units that took care of Mariupol and Donbass cauldrons.

Of course, these troops might instead go to the area of Nikolaev and the north of the Odessa region, cutting off Kiev from all ports on the Black Sea. Ports on the Sea of Azov have long been under Russian control. We'll see all these in a matter of a couple of weeks.

Expand full comment
41 more comments...

No posts