The unprecedented assault entered its fourth day Friday with Moscow rushing reinforcements and bombing its own territory to try and contain the Ukrainian advance.
A convoy of burnt-out military trucks, some bearing the ‘Z’ symbol of the Kremlin’s war and appearing to contain bodies, sits along the side of a highway.
The video, circulating on social media Friday and geolocated by NBC News, doesn’t show a beleaguered section of the front lines in eastern Ukraine. It is a village in Kursk, across the border in southern Russia.
For days now Vladimir Putin’s forces have struggled to put down an incursion into Russian territory by Ukrainian troops, after a surprise attack that threatened to upend the war’s status quo and open a new front in a daring challenge to the Kremlin.
Seems like that’s probably part of it. It could also be a response to the Russian offensives slowing down. Ukraine’s strategy so far seems to have been to stay on the defensive, preserve troops and bleed the Russian forces as much as possible as they advance. If Russia stops advancing, this strategy no longer works. Now that Ukraine has taken a seemingly significant area inside Russia itself, it means Russia is forced to keep playing an offensive role to bring this territory back under Russian control and Ukraine can continue with their strategy.
I’m no military analyst and I’m mostly just paraphrasing what Anders said but it seems reasonable. They seem to be playing their cards pretty close to the chest right now though as to what their actual objective is.
They just captured a major gas substation that means less revenue for Mordor as well.