The Russian’s are waiting….
The reports ARE that the Ukraine forces are bulking up for a strong military offense in the South of the country…
Reports are that the Russian’s gain a little in some places and lose a little in others….
The Ukraianan are aquiring and getting up to speed with Western weapons also….
It does appear that the Russian forces are trying to catch their breath….
Oh?
And the Russian’s keep firing missles at places in the Ukraine….
That while the Ukraine grain is harvested and piles up…..
The lack of progress may be explained at least in part by the “operational pause” declared by Russia’s Defense Ministry after the seizure of Lysychansk — to allow Russian troops a chance to “rest and develop their combat capabilities,” in the words of President Vladimir Putin.
But the so-called pause did not halt Russian attempts to probe and penetrate Ukrainian lines — and the official end of the pause, announced by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on July 16, has brought no noticeable increase in the intensity of Russia’s assaults, said George Barros, a geospatial and Russia analyst with the Institute for the Study of War.
Rather, Barros and many Western officials and analysts suspect that the Russians are close to exhausting their capacity to make further territorial gains as their depleted army confronts Ukrainian forces with newly acquired capabilities. Already forced to abandon their hopes of capturing the capital, Russian forces may soon have to reckon with their inability to conquer the entirety of the Donbas region — the only publicly declared goal of the initial invasion and the focus of current offensive ambitions….
Russia may succeed in capturing one or two more of the Donbas towns in its immediate line of fire, such as Siversk and nearby Bakhmut, Barros said, but it is hard to see its existing army pressing much farther than that….
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Here’s what you need to know:
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Ukraine pushes to retake ground in the south as Russia pours in reinforcements.
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The Russian arms dealer at the center of a proposed swap for Brittney Griner has a notorious history.
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There are no immediate signs of a speedy Brittney Griner deal in either Moscow or Washington.
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Missile strikes in northern Ukraine add urgency to a debate over hitting targets in Russia.
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In Kharkiv, powerful missiles hit central areas and plans for the future.
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Russia’s media regulator moves to revoke the license of Novaya Gazeta, an independent news outlet.
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Ukraine’s harvest is underway, swelling its grain backlog and adding to farmers’ troubles.
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Artifacts of war: Some Ukrainians are scouring battle zones for debris….