What happened on day 19 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine https://t.co/blfNlEB8CU
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 14, 2022
BREAKING: Officials in Ukraine say 2,000 civilian vehicles have left the besieged port city of Mariupol on an evacuation route. https://t.co/9maCbx2ocY
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 15, 2022
#UPDATE Kyiv will impose a 36-hour curfew from Tuesday night amid a "difficult and dangerous moment" after several Russian strikes, Mayor Vitali Klitschko saidhttps://t.co/joHwuSslj4
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 15, 2022
Infection and hunger among hundreds hiding in Mariupol cellar in Ukraine https://t.co/FPDz2SAlQp
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 15, 2022
The foreign volunteers hoping to fight for Ukraine as a new layer of resistance to Russia's invasion are for now a ragtag army. Some recruits tell @AP they are often waiting for weapons and training, which they say leaves them feeling exposed. https://t.co/7eH8Ednm0j
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 15, 2022
Ukraine economy could shrink as much as 35% https://t.co/qo5oQq2niS
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 15, 2022
"We're going to be watching very closely for any form of support that the PRC makes to the Russian Federation."@StateDeptSpox Ned Price explains to @CNNnewsroom's @jimsciutto the Biden administration's stance on China's potential involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. pic.twitter.com/FCm2a1zWof
— CNN (@CNN) March 15, 2022
Map of #Ukraine locating the humanitarian corridors agreed between Ukraine and Russia to allow the evacuation of civilians from areas hit by shelling#AFPgraphics @AFP pic.twitter.com/P7imYrglMl
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 15, 2022
1 comment:
The humanitarian corridor actually coming to fruition so fast is both a relief and surprise. Russian forces did this hundreds of times with the jihadists in Syria but most of the time the fighters would get cold feet at the last minute and not allow the civilians to leave the pocket, knowing that they'd all get shredded by air power as soon as the civvies left. It took years to get to a place where both sides respected the agreements and as a result a lot of civilian lives were spared.
Suffice to say the Ukrainian forces in Mariupol have decided to not use human shields despite the very real tactical benefit gained by forcing Russia to think twice about blowing up a piece of military equipment surrounded by them.
I think this possibly foreshadows another parallel to the Syrian war. In a week or a month we could see Ukrainian militia/armed forces themselves being bussed out as well, back to Ukrainian held territory. Live to fight another day, as it were.
This was the tempo used in reclaiming most of Syria.
1. Surround a town
2. Negotiate the release of the civilians
3. Shell/bomb the fighters who refuse to leave for a day or two to demonstrate the odds of success
4. Offer them extraction back to friendly lines in return for surrendering the town
5. Advance to the next town.
Rinse and repeat like that. Eventually it resulted in Idlib province being sequestered off with the most hardened al qaeda, ISIS, jihadi types that the government doesn't know what to do with, but nobody serious believes Putin plans to push all the way to Lviv. This is how Russia will begin to flip the densely populated civilian areas that is has largely avoided until Mariupol, without having to kill every last person within.
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