twk said:
japantiger said:
Rossticus said:
How has this map changed in the last 4 months? A quick glance looks like it's looked for several months.
In the East, the Ukrainians have gained a lot of ground -- the blue area is quite large -- but the great significance of this is that they are now in position to cut key Russian lines of communications, or already have done so. The Russians have a hard time moving anything except by rail, so if you take out their rail lines, they become an immobile, ill supplied target. They have also stopped the Russians short of the area where Ukraine's large (and up to now, untapped) shale gas fields are located, which was a prime target for Putin.
In the South, the Russians have a large force on the right (North) bank of the Dnipro River around Kherson. There are only two permanent bridges across the Dnipro in this region--one just east of Kherson and other other over the hydroelectric dam about 30 miles upriver, both of which have been damaged (the hydroelectric dam is apparently passable for civilians but not heavy equipment). The Ukrainians are now about 15 miles away from the hydroelectric dam. If they cut off that bridge for the Russians, and get to the other side, they can cut off the canal that runs through the Isthmus of Perekop down into Crimea, almost all the way to the Kerch Straight. This canal is evidently a crucial water supply for Crimea; without it, most of Crimea (it's mostly farmland until you get way down to the south) really isn't viable, as the Russians found when they occupied the peninsula in 2014 (and the Ukrainians dammed the canal).
One more thing I wanted to add just to give perspective: Someone pointed out that Ukraine is about the same size as Texas. In fact, if you overlay Texas on Ukraine, it's pretty similar in shape, just with the Panhandle lopped off, and a chunk of SE New Mexico taking its place. The blue area in the east is a triangle that is about 100 miles on 2 sides, and 150 on the third. That would be like taking a chunk of East Texas, out of the NE corner, that runs from Paris, to Texarkana, to Center, and back to Paris, just to give you some perspective.