Posted on 05/23/2022 4:12:48 AM PDT by GonzoII
KYIV/MARIUPOL (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Monday it had held off the latest assault on an eastern city that has become the main target of Moscow's offensive since Russian forces finally seized Mariupol last week. Russian forces tried to storm Sievierodonetsk, but were unsuccessful and retreated, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said.The city, on the banks of the Siverskiy Donets river that winds through eastern Ukraine, has been the main Russian target in recent days as Moscow tries to encircle Ukrainian forces in the east and fully capture the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
In Mariupol, where hundreds of Ukrainian fighters finally laid down their arms last week after a nearly three-month siege, Russian mine clearing teams were combing through the ruins of the giant Azovstal steel plant...
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Russia will have Eastern Ukraine and a land bridge to Crimea, exactly as they set out to do initially.
And Poland will have the West. Ze is mulling a bill of privileges for Polish nationals, including the right to get elected.
Dialing down the expectations I see....
I never bought into the whole Russia takes all of Ukraine and keeps going
nor
The notion that Ukraine would repel Russia completely and clearly.
“Dialing down the expectations I see....”
Actually far more than than what they wanted before the war.
Ukes are finally starting to withdraw from Sievierodonetsk.
While the Russian have been “driven back to Moscow” as the One World Order neocons have been promising us, they’ve somehow also managed to almost finish the encirclement a large part of the Ukrainian Army.
Zelenskyy’s finally changed his tune from “stay and fight” to “get the heck out of there.”
“Russia will have Eastern Ukraine and a land bridge to Crimea, exactly as they set out to do initially.”
And how long do they keep it?
No one can ever explain how Putin wins this war. By the end of this year Ukraine will have 2 million men under arms. They will both outnumber and, thanks to the west, have better gear than the Russians.
I agree. This is what they want. The entire country is of no benefit.
Yep I see the Ukes at this point doing a holding action. Holding off the Russian until they get their forces together with help from the west.
Reminds me of what Croatia did. They “held the line” while retolooling with help from USA then did a counteroffensive that pushed the Chetniks out.
This will turn into a guerrilla war. One that Russia will lose. The only way for dpsantions to be lifted is by exiting all of Ukraine.
GESTAPO!
Brave fighters holding their own against Russian invaders. Putin Puffers are not happy.
“This will turn into a guerrilla war.”
Link please.
Exactly... a guerrilla war will bleed the Russians down just as it did in Afghanistan.
The extent of the casualties being inflicted on Ukrainian forces cannot be concealed much longer from the public, or from the Ukrainian military itself…..despite all Western and Uke govt efforts to censor reporting.
Never happened in Crimea. And they escalate, they’ll lose more.
“Russia will have Eastern Ukraine and a land bridge to Crimea, exactly as they set out to do initially.”
Maybe and maybe not. What’s for sure is that it’s already cost them ten times what they thought it would.
And that’s a very, very good thing.
L
Zelensky’s inability or unwillingness to implement provisions of the Minsk agreements have changed to course of his country’s history.
Crimea was gone in 2014, and was and is never coming back, They have been living as part of Russia for almost a decade and have seen no benefit from the Kiev regime. Only punitive treatment. The overwhelming referendum to join Russia adopted after the Maidan coup in 2014 would only be increased were it held again. If Crimea was somehow reoccupied by the Ukraine nationalist govt, the results would be terrible retaliation repression and a bloody resistance.
The Eastern oblasts that in 2014 may have been willing to remain Ukrainian despite the Maidan coup, in exchange for autonomy, having now declared full independence, are not going back under Kiev now, imo. The animosities after 8 years of civil war and now full-on battle, are overwhelming.
There would be no peace in the East unless the Ukrainian nationalists manage to commit a genocidal campaign against every city and town that welcomed Russia or even surrendered and accepted terms of cooperation.
One Uke television commentator ( on the channel Zelensky did not censor) casually discussed that about a million people would have to be liquidated for the nationalists to succeed,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.