SMO on 16th December: the stalemate that still isn’t, a whole year later

Anyone who has followed the coverage of the Russian Special Military Operation in the Donbas at this site will have seen it explained that Ukrainian movement for territorial gain was a thing that the Russians either allowed or blocked as they saw fit. Plenty of space has also been given over to explaining that the Russians would apply a final limit More...

by P W Laurie | Published 3 months ago
By P W Laurie On Saturday, October 21st, 2023
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The continuing grind at Kupyansk sees the Ukrainians expend that “third army” intended for the “Spring Offensive”

The headline Russian activity in the Special Military Operation at the moment has to be that which is unfolding around Avdeevka. If this is purposed to take the town then it signals, as per a pattern that has emerged, More...

By P W Laurie On Sunday, August 27th, 2023
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The Kupyansk and Krasny Liman directions, July and August 2023

What better tool is there for a discreetly totalitarian government than social media where the ignorance that is all pervasive (by design) can be organised to create the impression of a zeitgeist in support of the More...

By P W Laurie On Saturday, August 19th, 2023
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Some follow-up concerning the defeat of the Storm Shadow: what Shoigu had to say about it (and about the “counteroffensive”)

The Russian activity in the Kupyansk and Krasny Liman directions is by far the most interesting thing happening right now in any territory of the Ukraine, either controlled by Moscow or Kiev, or in the Black Sea. More...

By P W Laurie On Monday, August 14th, 2023
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A catalogue of setbacks for the anti-Russian axis; Part Four: The latest game changing wunderwaffe defeated

On 24th June, the Russian Ministry of Defence briefed that an attack had occurred in the preceding 24 hours on an air base in the vicinity of Starokonstantinov in the Khmelnitsky region. The target, as it could More...

By P W Laurie On Sunday, June 25th, 2023
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A Catalogue Of Setbacks For The Anti-Russian Axis; Part Three: the “Coup”

The following is a Twitter thread featuring the author’s first impressions of the so-called “coup” against Putin. It will be fleshed out in the course of the next week (and republished). The More...

By P W Laurie On Sunday, June 18th, 2023
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A catalogue of setbacks for the anti-Russian axis; Part Two: catastrophic failure in the Zaporozhye, South Donetsk and Donetsk directions

Although there is some equivocation from some elements of the anti-Russian axis, it is widely accepted to be the case that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) began a general counteroffensive on 4th June, attacking More...

By P W Laurie On Tuesday, May 16th, 2023
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A catalogue of setbacks for the anti-Russian axis; Part One: the Artyomovsk counterattack that failed

Over the course of the weekend just gone there was a battle in what the Russians call the “Artyomovsk-Soledar direction”, and principally in what here has been dubbed the “Chasov Yar wedge” where Russian More...

By P W Laurie On Friday, March 31st, 2023
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The anti-Russian axis’ big propaganda and military defeats in Artyomovsk: Part Two

There has been a lot of noise in all sorts of media about whether the Ukrainians should or would defend Artyomovsk, or instead leave it to the Russians so as to concentrate defensively elsewhere, and then also whether More...

By P W Laurie On Thursday, March 30th, 2023
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The anti-Russian axis’ big propaganda and military defeats in Artyomovsk: Part One

The Ukrainians are trapped in Artyomovsk. There isn’t going to be any counter measure to relieve the city. The Ukrainians have a canal in between it and all but one their Human Wave staging areas, and Russian More...