Ag In Ok said:
aggiehawg said:
I am missing the Ukrainian statements that they are about to encircle Russian forces
There's not going to be a UKR encirclement of RU forces beyond the tactical level. RU continues to tighten on a strategic encirclement they call a "cauldron" in the Donbas region. This is where the bulk of UKRs best forces are, at least E of the Dnieper. If they don't beat feet back to the west towards Kiev and do it quickly, RU will have neutralized UKR maneuver forces in the eastern half of the country. Even as it stands, they will have to pull off a fighting retreat, which is always costly.
I'm not sure what the UKR high command's thinking is here. The RU strategy for the maneuver war is becoming clear, but I can't figure out if UKR is leaving those guys in the Donbas to delay the advance as long as possible or if they think they can somehow beat back the Russians across the border.
The RU southern and SE front is moving remarkably fast now that they have linked up at Mariupol. The big question is what the UKR order of battle looks like in the western part of the country.