Not in the near term. Their focus is on the Ukrainian theater and will remain so in the foreseeable future.
Soviet doctrine called for success to be reinforced; if failure was met in a certain sectors; resources would be shifted to areas where there was progress. Russian planning called for 3 thrusts [schwerpunkt/main point of effort] on widely separated axis; sound on paper/in theory. In reality the lack of resources plus the unexpected level of Ukrainian resistance resulted in failure; the Russians then forced to call off/abandon the thrust up north and focus on the east. Such a course of action was all they could realistically do.
May not be a good one but it may be it has to adopt out of sheer necessity and has advantages. The Russians will be in static positions on the defence; less challenging compared to waging an offensive/war of maneuver; arty will find it easier to hit preregistered targets rather than time sensitive/moving targets and the Russian air force would find it easier providing support to troops holding ground as opposed to on the move.
I am sure that is the case. However Russia will not have enough highly trained, well equipped, and well motivated units to be everywhere at once. The more that Ukraine can sow seeds of doubt in the mind among Russian units the better from the defence point of view.
Granted but if indeed Russia is forced to go on the defensive its troops don't have to be everywhere; just mainly concentrated on a few specific areas.
I think this is the big question. It seems highly likely that Severodonetsk and Lisichansk are going to fall, and quite plausible that Kramatorsk-Slavyansk are next. Those are doable, though not guaranteed at this point. But then what? Unless the Ukrainian military starts to crumble from an organizational level, and this isn't impossible between the major losses of men and materiel, Russia will have many more uphill battles to fight.
The real "whittling" has come to the front line north of Kharkov. This is the first successful Ukrainian counteroffensive, beyond local battles, and it has operational implications for the Russian push. I suspect Russia will have to deploy fresh forces to the Kharkov front line. Some sources on the Russian side have already speculated that Ukraine had excellentintel, striking the lines shortly afterline Russian units were sent towards Izyum, and LNR reservist units were put in their place, in an attmept to "hold the line". It does appear that two LNR reservist regiments (or rather elements of) were involved in the fighting there though it's hard to be certain how much of a difference this has made.
Answered a lot of my questions!! I made the post before I saw yours! Thank you.
In my opinion any push on Odessa would have to come after an victory in the Donbas. Russia is currently tying down some Ukrainian forces through the fighting that's going on in that area, that's probably about it.
The near encirclement is around the Severodonetsk-Lisichansk area, with one pincer coming out of Yampol', and other out of Popasnaya, in theory. But in reality it will depend on where Russia can gain ground. Note that the pincer out of Izyum stalled, as did the one near Velikaya Novoselka. They were aimed at a much more ambitious encirclement that simply failed. Now a much smaller one is being attempted. There are also continued probing attacks around Ugledar, Gulyaypole, Velikaya Novoselka, Mari'inka, Avdeevka, and the Izyum Salient. If any of those probing attacks succeed, they will likely be exploited and a new pincer would form.
colonelcassad.livejournal.com
colonelcassad.livejournal.com
Gotta wait for Feanor. From what I’ve seen, they are nearly surrounded, and the fighting in the city has began. I think one of the Chechen detachments is there. I’ve noticed they love to use them for urban combat.
If the same You-Tube video is accurate in its translation then its
Also unlike much of social media its not the 115th Brigade, Its a single platoon in the 3rd Battlion of the 115th Brigade and the way I interprete the statement is more along the lines they just wont be going on the attack anymore.