re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian authorities said their army was closing in on the Russian-occupied city of Kreminna, control of which could allow Kyiv to significantly expand its efforts to retake Russian-held areas in Ukraine’s east.

Kreminna, a city in the eastern Luhansk region with a prewar population of 18,000, is being abandoned by Russia’s military command as Ukrainian troops advance through the mined and heavily fortified area surrounding it, said Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk.

“When we de-occupy Kreminna, it will be the turn of other Luhansk cities,” Mr. Haidai said in a televised interview Wednesday. His description of the situation around Kreminna couldn’t be independently verified.

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The capture of Kreminna would give Ukraine access to major roads leading to the city of Rubizhne and the nearby industrial center of Severodonetsk, both heavily damaged in fighting over the summer, as well as to the town of Starobilsk.

Many of the Russian units attacking the city of Bakhmut to the south are advancing from Rubizhne and Severodonetsk, Mr. Haidai said, meaning that securing Kreminna and launching offensives on those cities could allow Ukraine to disrupt Russia’s onslaught against Bakhmut, aiding its embattled Ukrainian defenders.
Starobilsk, on the other hand, overlooks key roads across the region, Mr. Haidai said. “Whoever controls Starobilsk can essentially control with firepower the entire logistics of Luhansk region,” he said. “There’ll be almost no road left along which the enemy can calmly transfer either equipment or manpower.”

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Russian government officials haven’t commented on Ukrainian claims about Kreminna.

Andrei Marochko, a Russian-installed military official in occupied Luhansk, told Russian state media on Wednesday that Ukraine could launch an assault on Kreminna from three directions at once. He said wet winter conditions are unlikely to slow its advance since the ground near Kreminna is solid and the surrounding forested areas would help it conceal forces and equipment involved in attacks.

Ukraine’s upbeat comments conflict with statements made this week by Russian military bloggers, who usually give assessments of the fighting that are more candid than those emanating from Moscow, and who have dismissed recent statements by Mr. Haidai and other Ukrainian officials as part of a psychological operations campaign.

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MOSCOW, Dec 28 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's 10-point peace plan, saying that proposals to end the conflict in Ukraine must take into account what it calls "today's realities" of four Ukrainian regions having joined Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today's realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia. Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful."

Russia declared Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as part of its territory in September after referendums condemned by Ukraine and Western countries. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions.

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However, there have been thousands of children taken from their married heterosexual parents in eastern Ukraine.

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You know that I try to refrain from loud predictions and insiders, especially negative ones. This is due to the fact that during the war, information is often more destructive than thousands of mines and shells. I especially prefer silence during informational hunger, it is better to post a couple of funny texts than to suck “insiders” and “forecasts” out of your finger. But now I consider it my duty to shed light on the real situation in the SMO zone. So, in summary:


• The Russian army is experiencing a serious shortage of ammunition against the backdrop of active supplies of ammunition to our enemy, this problem is turning from serious to critical. If nothing changes, in the near future the enemy will begin to gain artillery dominance at the frontline.

To understand the depth of the problem, it is necessary to realise the fact that absolutely all the successes of our army, both offensive and defensive, are the result of the superiority of our artillery. There are several options for the development of events, in my opinion:

1. Our side is negotiating the supply of ammunition with one of the few allied countries.

2. We are trying to freeze the conflict on the most shameful terms in order to have time to build up production capacity that will cover the deficit.

3. We decide on a risky, absolutely adventurous tank breakthrough aimed at ensuring that most of the troops can gain a foothold in settlements, and not stand in the open steppe under mines and shells.


•Mobilisation has completely failed. It should be understood that the vast majority – 70-80% of the mobilised military personnel turned out to be unfit for combat for several reasons:


1. Lack of quality military training. Here I don’t see the point in ranting, I can only say that if yesterday’s cashier from the grocery store is driven around in a tank at the training ground for 2 weeks, then he obviously won’t become a good tankman.

2. The lack of ideological motivation of the mobilised due to the lack of clear goals of the SMO, which should be broadcast by the authorities and the media.

Yesterday’s factory worker has no idea what denazification and demilitarization of brotherly Ukraine is (I don’t quite understand either). Obviously, these magical and abstract expressions are not the reason why a hard worker will go to war for the denazification of brotherly Ukraine with a smile on his face and the blessing of his wife.

3. As a result of the previous paragraph, there is a large-scale intentional and unintentional sabotage of hostilities by the mobilised. For example, men learned to play “radio games”, that is, to simulate the performance of a combat mission on the radio while sitting in a comfortable and safe dugout. With all the resulting victorious exclamations and panicked cries. I’m not even talking about the rampant drunkenness and the complete absence of at least some security measures of countering the enemy’s sabotage activity.

4. After the previous paragraph, a logical question arises – where are the senior comrades, hardened by experience and disciplined, who should restore order and counteract sabotage in the ranks of the mobilised? They are not there, they are fighting in other positions, because some fabulous idiot decided to staff separate, very responsible and important areas only with the mobilised. As a result, we get hundreds dead and wounded in the battle for a pigsty occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which has no value. And when the mobilised begin to gain the upper hand, the enemy will calmly and orderly retreat covered by an artillery wall, which is becoming easier and easier to implement (see the beginning of the text), and then they will shell the newly occupied positions with HIMARS.

I still have a lot to say about idiots and traitors who will forever burn in hell for every drop of the spilled blood of a Russian soldier, but I think that this is enough to understand the big picture.



What to do? Do not lose faith, unity, and honor. Fight to the end, because the Russian people and our homes are behind us.

We will definitely withstand it.

Glory to Russia!

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USMEagles

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Another signal that peace talks at this point are worthless.

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