Last year someone in reserves was getting on my nerves, and I told them they were getting deployed. War is the traditional mean of rectifying the economy.

The jumps our government is going through to declare war is very machavelian.

I would add the note that while it took some time to pacify Mariupol, that's because it was the home of the Azov Battalion, and those fanatics used human shields and dug in to the basement of Azovstal. Scott Ritter noted that they also began with strength much higher than commonly realized, up to 20,000 (two divisions!)

The point is, I suspect resistance in cities such as Mykolaiv, Odessa, and others on the way to Transnistria will be quite substantially lower for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the lack of Azov's "espirit de corps".

There is some accuracy here. But a lot is also heresay. Counter propaganda.

How many battalions have they held back retreating into heavy population centers that haven't been overrun like Kharkiv and other cities. Further reserves and trained in key areas being resupplied like Kiev and Odesa. How many more are training in Western Ukraine, and even abroad? But I could agree with some of that assessment that the previously heavily fortified front line should be crumbling especially around those separatist oblasts, because it has seen over a month of heavy fighting and bombardment, but isn't it still largely intact. Despite of this press citing morale and less mobile units.

However if Mauripol is anything to go by. Isn't Kharkiv, hasn't it gained reinforcements recently, and a few other cities in the East, and Odesa. Dug in and could take a lot longer to dig out. Where fighting could go on for much longer even if the line in this press breaks.

Curiously what has the Ukrainian counter offensive been fighting with. Mobile units, tanks, artillery.

Meanwhile, Russia has lost about a quarter of its combat effectiveness, most of its elite troops, and just shy of 25,000 Russian lives.

F.