First the French
Selon le commandant de cette unité qui dispose de six Caesars, ils ont permis l'élimination d'au moins 80 pièces d'artillerie russes. Ces jeunes artilleurs ukrainiens ont été formés en France, en pleine guerre, il y a un mois
My translation: “According to the commander of this unit, its six Caesars have allowed the elimination of at least 80 pieces of Russian artillery. These young Ukrainian cannon cockers were trained in the middle of the war, in France, a month ago”.
Fuck me. They started training a month ago. If this is even close to the case, and Ukraine has not been inclined to overstate its successes, we are watching the pivot of the war right now. There might need to be a bit of backpeddling about French attitudes. And France appears to have committed to 18 Caesars.
Meanwhile Sievierodonetsk is still being contested with the middle third of the city now a no-man’s land. That it is being contested at all is a miracle and as for why, Ukraine has not been undisciplined hitherto, something is brewing.
Checkpoints around Melitopol are being demanned so the troops can be sent to resist Ukrainian advances in their direction
There is also a report I can’t lay my hands on that says 30-40k Russian troops have been assembled south of Izyum for a huge push to envelop the Ukrainians.
I find that hard to believe, that is 40 full BTG’s, but if you throw enough cooks and carpenters and repair guys into the fray I suppose the number might hold up. But if Zelenskiy’s comment yesterday that he had brought some gifts to the front line of which details would emerge later, we are very possibly approaching Armageddon in the Donbas.
And my bloody uninformed prediction that summer solstice is the effective end of this war, still has 2 weeks to go. Looking up recipes for roast crow, with feathers and pluck sauce, but not wrong yet.