This may well be the beginning of the end of Ukraine’s military effort. From Simplicius at simplicius76.substack.com:
There is a lot of news buzzing about today regarding the so-called ‘mineral deal’ and the tiresome retreads of US ‘pulling out of mediations’ in Ukraine. At this point, it’s safe to say most of this chaff is nothing but that—a red herring meant to propagate the image of US as ‘in charge’ and taking ‘initiative’ in leading the world. It’s nothing but smoke and mirrors and noise at this point, clatter meant to distract from mounting Russian military successes.
The real consequential news as always came from the front, where Russian forces made a series of shock breakthroughs in the Pokrovsk direction, signaling a true start of wider Spring offensives. The most notable of which came by way of an instructive video showcasing some of the tactics oft-discussed here.
First the description:
Exemplary storming of Novoolenivka caught on video
First, the drones knocked out the armored vehicles: you can see how the drones burn the BMP-1TS, the Bogdana self-propelled guns and a mortar. When the Russian Armed Forces attack troops appear, the [AFU] try to gain a foothold, but the drones destroy the houses where they are hiding one after another. Abandoning the dead and wounded, the enemy ran from house to house until they found themselves on the outskirts of Novoolenivka and ran away.
