FriscoKid said:
Pretty surprised that they want to do this right now. I would have thought that they had the Russians pinned on the wrong side of the river and they could just wait it out. Going to be a lot of deaths on both sides.
Kherson geographically IMO is way tougher than the East and NE. The ground is much flatter, space between cover/concealment is larger, the towns between are smaller, and the LOAs can be seen so much further away. Then you have the mighty Dnipro and Pivdennyi Buh Major rivers along with the smaller ones coming off of them. The coast on the west. Meanwhile the orcs have Crimea resupply, air support, R&R, etc just behind them a 1.5 hr car ride, a short rotary hop, of a very quick sortie with fixed wing.
The orcs are in chaos and the UKR is likely taking advantage of this. Crimea is quite strategically located but if they can't take this back and want to retake control of the Dnipro to include Meltitopul and Mariupol then they at least have to take back control to the 2014 line creating that buffer on the Dnipro and blocking land access from SW to those two key cities. This will incur great sacrifice, but if their longterm goal is to oust russia than NOW is the best time while they have the initiative.
Of note a few days ago President Erdogan publicly announced Crimea as belonging to Ukraine. This is a significant indicator that there is at least some global power support for kicking russia out and returning control to its rightful place. Given today's restrictions of people leaving east across the Kertch Bridge russia must believe this is a serious threat as well.
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn