Because winter does not slow Kyiv’s offensive – Corriere.it

From our envoy Kramatorsk Meaning of battle Bakhmut? We are trying to dry out the Russian units. They are losing thousands of men Ammunition reserves dwindling. A little like spring has stumbled upon Mariupol: It took them two months to take the city and we bought that precious time He allowed us to organize our counterattacks. The difference today is that Bakhmut We will not lose it, and even if it did, it would still be a victory, as Ukrainian officials on the Donbass front made clear. Let’s draw the threads of meetings with the military over the past three months, which are often spent with spokespeople for the General Staff Kyiv And above all here, on the battlefields in the east of the country. The most obvious conclusion remains that The war continuesThere is no room for a truce or a glimmer of negotiation.

Yesterday they clearly repeated from the Kremlin that the government of Zelensky and the Western allies must Recognition of Russian territorial gains, not only the Crimea or the Luhansk and Donetsk Autonomous Regions, but also the territories occupied since February 24. We see the Ukrainian response happening with the military on the ground: Not a single meter will be conceded, Only a return to the 1991 borders will guarantee peace. Yesterday the road from Dnipro to Kramatorsk and the disputed provinces of Donbass was cut off Endless columns of military trucks Loaded with ammunition, missiles, food and petrol, accompanied by lines of buses, jeeps and private cars packed with soldiers. Snow or cold did not stop them, nor did the rain of rockets and heavy artillery shells that hit civilian areas at night (there are dozens of dead), as well as the electricity infrastructure and military points. Between February and March last year the temperatures were near minus 15, and we were much less equipped than they are today, but we fought the same way. There is no reason for the war to slow down in the coming months, They tell us in the shelters dug in the frozen ground. Let’s try to summarize the situation in five points.

1) Continued tug of war on Bakhmut. The Ukrainians are building a second line of resistance along the water canal a few kilometers west of the western suburbs, but at the same time they insist on strengthening Advanced artillery positions. According to their elite units, the Wagner Brigades (private contractors considered the most experienced veterans among the Russians) have recently launched Night attacks with small patrols Well equipped with infrared goggles, their progress is measured in terms of a few tens of meters per day.

2) Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are trying to break through east of Kharkivtowards Svatov and south towards Solidar. The plan is to liberate large areas of northern Lugansk by then Wagner’s encirclement He took it from behind.

3) The conquest project is still alive New attack axis In the Zaporizhzhia sector towards Melitopol and finally you reach the port of Berdiansk.

4) Kherson front Work is underway to conquer the Dnipro To the Crimea and north to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. One of the main points here is the Nova Kakhovka aqueduct, which ensures the water supply of Crimea.

5) They are worried Groupings of Russian troops in Belarus. Few in Kyiv believe Lukashenko intends to go to war. But pressure from Putin and the Ukrainians is forcing them to divert resources from fronts crucial to defending the Western Front, through which NATO military aid from Poland passes.