The War in the Ukraine

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
Mykolaiv and Odessa are very important for Russia. If they are under Russian control, this will allow a land route with another self-proclaimed pro-Russian republic of Transnistria, which is part of the Republic of Moldova.

There are Russian peacekeepers (1,500 people) in Transnistria after the war in the early 1990s. There is a limited Russian military contingent guarding Europe's largest Cold War-era weapons cache, located near the Transnistrian village of Kolbasna. There are about 20,000 tons of ammunition in the Kolbasna military depot and it is guarded by a task force of Russian troops. Moldova has repeatedly stated that the Russian military presence in the region must be put to an end. Despite the tension, however, the conflict has been "frozen" for decades and there has not been a single serious incident so far.
Odessa is important but is it militarily feasible? Not sure. Long salient, large city, big issues.
 

Abominable

Major
Registered Member
This is an updated map of Luhansk oblast battle. It looks it will be over by the weekend.


DELETED OFF TOPIC REPLY TO OFF TOPIC POST.
Looks like all roads from Lysychansk have been cut off. The city will soon be "behind enemy lines" just like Mariupol was. It made no sense to withdraw from Severdonetsk so quickly, the Ukrainians must have left a lot of heavy equipment there.

Anyone keeping an eye on the foreign mercenaries whereabouts? A lot were in the pocket before the latest advances.

It's also interesting how high Russians have been claiming Ukrainian casualties are. Normally it is 3-400, yesterday it was 1,000. There must have been a lot of heavy fighting/shelling.
 

Abominable

Major
Registered Member
Odessa is important but is it militarily feasible? Not sure. Long salient, large city, big issues.
The problem is Russia wants to keep the cities after the war, so wants to keep them intact.

Ukrainians use hostages and every time they're under siege they start killing them to force the Russians to assault instead of starving the garrison of supplies. That's why the tactics Russia used effectively in Syria failed to work in Ukraine. When ISIS held cities were put under siege they didn't have ethnic Russian civilians as hostages.

Things could change, it takes foreign mercenaries or Nazis like Azov to kill civilians, thankfully most of the later are now dead or in captivity. The Ukrainian strategy wasn't implemented properly in Sieverdonetsk, probably because they were mainly conscripts and not Nazis.

Odessa is garrisoned by a Nazi battalion Aidar so I would avoid putting it under siege unless absolutely necessary.
 

Minm

Junior Member
Registered Member
Odessa is culturally important to Russia. They won't want it to be destroyed during the conquest. It would be better to first destroy as much of the Ukrainian armed forces as possible so it can be taken with minimal damage later. Zaporizhzhia is much more exposed to being surrounded the Russians using the river
 

Soldier30

Senior Member
Registered Member
Separate units of the Ukrainian army began to leave Lisichansk under the blows of Russian artillery. The Ukrainian command ordered the units to leave the city so as not to be surrounded by the Russian army. In order to minimize losses, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were ordered to retreat in small groups with a large interval and distance.” Earlier it became known that the territory of the Lisichansk oil refinery was taken under control by the forces of the Russian Army.

 

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
The problem is Russia wants to keep the cities after the war, so wants to keep them intact.

Ukrainians use hostages and every time they're under siege they start killing them to force the Russians to assault instead of starving the garrison of supplies. That's why the tactics Russia used effectively in Syria failed to work in Ukraine. When ISIS held cities were put under siege they didn't have ethnic Russian civilians as hostages.

Things could change, it takes foreign mercenaries or Nazis like Azov to kill civilians, thankfully most of the later are now dead or in captivity. The Ukrainian strategy wasn't implemented properly in Sieverdonetsk, probably because they were mainly conscripts and not Nazis.

Odessa is garrisoned by a Nazi battalion Aidar so I would avoid putting it under siege unless absolutely necessary.
They did it in Kramatorsk too: deporting most civilians to western Ukraine and keeping a few as hostages.
 
Top