Russia and Ukraine

[Thumpalumpacus]

Another article:

For the last couple of weeks, Russian forces have attempted to advance from areas in the south towards Zaporizhzhia. At the same time, Russian forces have been trying to advance south from Kharkiv. The logical operational goal here would be the capture of the city of Dnipro. This would give Russia control over a large proportion of eastern Ukraine.

If the Russians were to pause their northern and southern operations, and reinforce their ground forces in the east, it is also possible that they might also be able to surround and destroy Ukraine's military forces defending this part of the country.

This would be a major loss for the Ukrainian military, and significant victory for the Russians. To achieve this, the Russians will need to improve their battlefield leadership, combined arms tactics, rear area security, logistics, communications security and a range of other basic military skills. But the Russians have showed the capacity to adapt in some areas of their campaign; we should not discount this possibility.

Therefore, in the coming weeks, look to the eastern theatre of this war. We may see a significant Russian offensive in this region. Not only might this be the military victory Putin has been seeking, but it would provide bargaining power to achieve a political settlement favourable to Russian in any ceasefire negotiations.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-29/r.../100944004

It looks to me like the Russians realize they bit off more than they can chew, and are thus refocusing their offensive on smaller, more attainable goals.

And --

Russia fired at least 70 missiles on targets across Ukraine on Saturday, the most since invading the country last month, The Insider has reported.

The massive attack came on the same day that President Joe Biden gave a speech in Warsaw in which he slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching the invasion and for the viciousness of the war.

The Insider, a Russian investigative journalist project, reported that 52 missiles were fired from Black Sea Fleet warships in Sevastopol and at least 18 from Belarus, with the total amount spent on the missiles and the logistical cost reaching some half a billion dollars that day.

Despite the massive Russian attack, Ukraine's air defense also set a record for this war in the number of missiles it shot down in one day, as only eight of the 70 missiles fired by Russia engaged their targets, according to The Insider.

Among those shot down were several cruise missiles, suggesting that Ukraine has recently gained the ability to bring down such missiles, Defense World reported.

In addition, Russian missiles are failing to explode at a significant rate, which experts speculate could be due to lax quality control as the Russian army hastens to get them to the war front.

https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk...z7Or7Oja00

That's some expensive messaging.