I have been trying to offer short and focused updates on the war in Ukraine, but now it seems impossible, since the amount of activity in so many parts of the 600-mile long frontline is simply dizzying.
So I will try here to pack as much information as possible to show just how close to collapse are Kiev’s defenses in Donetsk region.
Report by the New York Times says Russian Federation troops liberated 12 settlements in just the last week of offensive in the Donbas.
Much like Ukrainian forces are retreating and taking up new defensive lines, so does the MSM, that is abandoning some propaganda narratives and taking up others further behind in their fake triumphalism.
Some of the media reports now hear ‘military bloggers on both sides’, and not just the ‘Ukrainian Military PR lie machine’.
WATCH: Heavy ground battles in Chasov Yar.
WATCH: Heavy ground battles in Chasov Yar. pic.twitter.com/a6UNAhKJkg
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
And much of the distressing news for Kiev is coming from their own forces on the ground, tired of pretending.
For instance, Swiss paper Blick (behind a paywall) brings the unvarnished opinions of frontline Ukrainian officers:
“’The Russians will capture Donbass by October, then the conflict will freeze, and we will have to negotiate with Putin’, predicts Sergei, an officer of the brigade located in Chasov Yar.”
WATCH: a traditional Odessa school nicknamed ‘Hogwarts Castle’ was struck and caught fire.
A traditional Odessa school nicknamed ‘Hogwarts Castle’ was struck and caught fire. pic.twitter.com/GP0sHrzV5Z
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
They point out three reasons: lack of people, and new US aid ‘arrives too late’.
“The third reason is the leadership style of Commander-in-Chief Syrsky, which the publication calls ‘the paralyzing effect of the Butcher’.
Syrsky’s appointment “caused a bad mood in many places at the front, as they were sent on combat missions with no ammunition, with too few people.
The Guardian reported:
“Russia has consolidated recent battlefield gains in the east of Ukraine, and is attempting to break through Ukrainian defensive lines before a long-awaited package of US military assistance arrives at the frontline.”
Russians have expanded a narrow corridor around the rural settlement of Ocheretyne. The fighting there followed a rare surprise Russian attack, because with the present-day ISR capabilities one side is always able to know the other’s movements.
WATCH: Russian forces use a large-scale aerosol curtain to disguise troop movement from enemy drones.
Russian forces use a large-scale aerosol curtain to disguise troop movement from enemy drones. pic.twitter.com/DQUEzBkaUv
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
“According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Kremlin is seeking to exploit a window of opportunity before US assistance is delivered. Moscow has been bringing in reinforcements and has a threefold advantage in some sectors. Its recent tactical gains suggest an ambitious plan to encircle the Ukrainian garrison cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in a summer offensive. Whether it will succeed is unclear. Russia is unlikely to overwhelm Ukrainian defences, the ISW said last week.”
Ukrainian service personnel complain that they are completely outgunned. Russian warplanes able to operate freely close to the frontline. Ukraine has fewer tanks and armored vehicles.
WATCH: Russian forces storm Ocheretyne.
WATCH: Russian forces storm Ocheretyne. pic.twitter.com/743TLMo5ux
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Russian Armed Forces are trying to disrupt the supply of American weapons to Ukraine, with Bloomberg reporting that strikes are increasingly focusing on military installations and logistics.
“’The Russian military is rapidly moving forward in the eastern direction, while exhausted Ukrainian troops wait for desperately needed American weapons’, the article says.”
The Russian armed forces struck a major railroad hub in the settlement of Borovaya, the Kharkov region, where Ukrainian forces were distributing servicemen, equipment, and ammunition to the frontlines.
WATCH: Russian air defense system destroys reconnaissance Ukrainian drone in the border area.
Russian air defense system destroys reconnaissance Ukrainian drone in the border area. pic.twitter.com/hYjXS9vqd4
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Besides targeting power and railroad infrastructure, Russians are targeting foreign fighters. Sunday, Russian drones hit a hotel in the southern port city of Mykolaiv, targeting ‘English-speaking mercenaries’.
A reconnaissance UAV also discovered a temporary deployment point for foreign mercenaries of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kharkov.
Russian Telegram channels: “Additional reconnaissance revealed that there were more than 150 mercenaries in two buildings. A high-precision missile strike was carried out at the coordinates of the buildings, as a result of which 40 mercenaries from central and western Europe were instantly demobilized, and more than 55 were injured of varying degrees of severity.
Even ‘the butcher’ now has to concede the repeated defeats.
BBC reported:
“Ukraine’s commander-in-chief has said the situation on the frontline has worsened in the face of multiple Russian attacks. Oleksandr Syrsky said Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from positions in the eastern Donetsk region.
[…] ‘The situation at the front has worsened’, Gen Syrsky said in a post on the Telegram messaging service on Sunday.”
Advancing forces made further gains in multiple locations along the eastern front in Ukraine.
CNN reported:
“One of Russia’s main efforts is in the Donetsk region. Ukraine’s DeepState monitoring group, which updates daily changes in frontline positions, shows Russian forces pushing forward in eight different locations along 20-25 kms of frontline in one 24-hour period.
[…] Elsewhere, about 180kms (112 miles) to the north, Russia’s forces have also achieved their first successes in almost three months along that part of the frontline that cuts into Kharkov region.
With withdrawals and losses accumulating, military bloggers such as Myroshnykov and the DeepState site have both taken aim at official Ukrainian communications, accusing the [Ukrainian] armed forces of increasingly unrealistic updates from the battlefield.”
Watch: enormous cemetery of Ukrainian forces in Sumy region.
Watch: enormous cemetery of Ukrainian forces in Sumy region. pic.twitter.com/lve38v9HTQ
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Syrsky acknowledged that Ukraine’s overall situation had deteriorated.
“’The situation at the front has escalated. Trying to seize the strategic initiative and break through the front line, the enemy has concentrated its main efforts in several directions, creating a significant advantage in forces and in means’, he added.”
Russia’s stepped-up tempo may be a precursor to a major offensive attempt later this spring.
Also, a Ukrainian soldier from the Nazi Azov battalion offered a frank analysis of the country’s war effort.
Sputnik reported:
“’No one is willing to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine nowadays’, said the soldier, identified as ‘Niko’, to a local news outlet. The soldier continues to fight on despite having lost one of his legs in combat, insisting that there is no one to replace him.
[…] The soldier added that ‘literally no one’ is willing to go to Ukraine’s front lines.
[…] Fighting-age Ukrainians “do whatever they come up with” to try to escape the draft the soldier added, including “swimming across the Tisa River and drowning themselves in there.” Some 22 Ukrainians have reportedly died attempting to cross the river separating Ukraine from Romania.”
It is estimated that 1.5 million men of military age are currently in hiding across Ukraine. Ukrainian military personnel are also increasingly deserting, with over 100,000 deserters on the run.
WATCH: A man from Odessa escapes military recruiters hunting Ukrainians to send to the meat grinder.
WATCH: A man from Odessa escapes military recruiters hunting Ukrainians to send to the meat grinder. pic.twitter.com/C4sa2gP0zs
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
Reuters reported:
“Russia has been rearming faster than the West, has a larger army than before the invasion and has a population several times larger than Ukraine which is trying to draft more men into its army.
Russia says it will achieve all its aims in what it calls the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, parts of which Moscow now says it considers to be Russian territory.”
While I’m trying not to talk about the multiple conquests by the Russian forces, one simply can’t be avoided: Russian sources report that after heavy fighting, the settlement of Rabotyno was returned under full control of the Russian Armed Forces. This is the same settlement Ukrainians captured during the failed summer counteroffensive in 2023.
Ukrainian military analyst: “Judging by the footage, the Russians captured most of the village of Rabotyno, which was taken during the summer counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They hung their flag on a building in the northern part of the village.”
WATCH: Russians reportedly took back Rabotyno, the only Ukrainian conquest in their Summer Offensive.
WATCH: Russians reportedly took back Rabotyno, the only Ukrainian conquest in their Summer Offensive. pic.twitter.com/DOJgBe0ucH
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 30, 2024
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The post THE EDGE OF COLLAPSE: Ukrainian Troops Say Russia Will Take Donbas Region by October, Complain ‘NO ONE Wants To Fight for Kiev’ – MSM Adjusts Coverage in Anticipation of Defeat (VIDEOS) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
