excerpted:
“...This is now the second Ukrainian held area on the Donetsk front that is in operational encirclement. In both areas the Russian follow Sun Tzu’s advice to not completely close off an encirclement but to leave a route out. This prevents fanatical defenses by encircled troops or it may even lead the enemy to push more forces into a hopeless position....”
Sun Tzu said, in The Art of War, 7. MANEUVERING wrote,
When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.
This does not mean that the enemy is to be allowed to escape. The object, as Tu Mu puts it, is “to make him believe that there is a road to safety, and thus prevent his fighting with the courage of despair.” Tu Mu adds pleasantly: “After that, you may crush him.”
We will soon see whether Russia allows Ukes (that don’t surrender) to escape, or they crush them.
“Trying to fully encircle an enemy army and then reducing it if it is prepared to fight can be risky. Probably better to prepare a killing ground in the area you know the enemy will escape through and persuade the enemy to escape through it by shaping the battlefield.
Back in WW2, a Japanese army was isolated north of Rangoon and decided to break out across the Sittang River. British became aware of plan and decided to disrupt the breakout by establishing fortified positions to allow artillery and machine gun fire onto the retreating Japanese and using CAS.
From combat, Japanese dead 8,500, British dead 95.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Sittang_Bend
“...This is now the second Ukrainian held area on the Donetsk front that is in operational encirclement. In both areas the Russian follow Sun Tzu’s advice to not completely close off an encirclement but to leave a route out. This prevents fanatical defenses by encircled troops or it may even lead the enemy to push more forces into a hopeless position....”
That’s some heavy duty BS.