My Dundas Valley

Comment: Yeah, you can look at it this way, too. I have just read an article in one of the Polish online papers published in Toronto, saying, how awful it was for the Russians to bomb the Centre of Peace and Security military compound located between the Ukrainian city of Lviv and the Polish border. The camp is actually housing, arming and training foreign mercenaries volunteering to fight in Ukraine against the Russians but this is somehow called a “peace mission”. The Russians have forgotten how upset they once were, when Georgia bombed Russian “peace keepers” in South Ossetia, which led to the Russian attack on Georgia (2008). But wait, the Russians were not alone. When Israel bombed Syrian camps housing Iranian soldiers, we did not complain or criticize anybody, we did not write flashy articles. We were calculating our grants and trying to please our sponsors. So it is, after all, hypocrisy. When somebody does it to us, it’s bad. When somebody does it to somebody else, well, it depends on the “connections”. When we do it to somebody else, it’s always good, it’s always right. You are a smart kid, WhatsHerFace. Keep up the rumbling… it’s working…

It appears that Russian original plan to surround Eastern Ukraine and divide the country along the Dnieper River has been halted. Positions in Dniepro and Zaporizhzhia were lost. In the South, the Russian army is advancing from Crimea eastward, towards the city of Mariupol and the Donetsk – Luhansk Region and westward, towards Nikolaiv and Odessa, most likely trying to go all the way towards the border with Moldova and Romania. If successful, this will cut Ukraine off of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. It will also open a land connection between Crimea and Russia, through Donetsk-Luhansk territory.

The second major front originating from Belarus in the North and from Russia in the North-East, advances towards the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv. Positions in the East, near the cities of Kharkiv and Kup’yansk are strategic locations along major highways and supply routes from Russia. The Donetsk-Luhansk enclave did not expand much since the war began, although efforts were visible to press westward in order to complete the land corridor connecting Russia with Crimea.

Talks are under way between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in or near the town of Naroulia (Belarus), about 35 km from the border with Ukraine. French news agency reports that Ukraine requested an immediate accession to NATO. We are also hearing that Finland and Sweden are considering joining NATO. On the other side of the divide, president Putin has ordered Russian nuclear forces on high alert. Situation is becoming more dangerous. However, reports from both sides are full of psych-ops (normal part of every war), therefore it is difficult to find a reliable source of information that one could trust.

Green: Eastern Ukraine
Yellow: Donetsk – Lugansk Region
Blue: Western Ukraine and Moldova

According to Russian source:

• Yellow pins – locations of advancing Russian military as of Feb 24
• Red pins: (Kharkov, Kiev and Odessa) – Strong Ukrainian resistance, fighting to continue tomorrow (Feb 25)

It looks like, at this stage, Russians are trying to cut out and secure Eastern Ukraine (East of the Dnieper River) with additional presence of Russian forces in the area of Kiev, Nikolaev and Odessa. It may, however, be a deception map, I don’t have any means to verify this information independently.

Related:

• Putin Crosses the Rubicon. What Next?
• The US Is the Major Instigator of the Ukraine Conflict. The Historical Facts