FancyCat

Reminder, the UN and ICRC have been refused access to the left bank, and reports state that Russia is preventing Ukrainians who have not accepted Russian passports the ability to evacuate. I hope they blow that bridge and all those collaborators have to ferry out of Crimea.

visual of where main defensive line is vs the recently taken villages.

Sure, but like many have stated, take Melitopol, you unhinge the kherson front, you unhinge the rest of the front to Donetsk, you gain a sea presence in the Azov, vital to cutting off sea access to Crimea, you open huge avenues for Ukraine to conduct further offensive operations. Heavy defenses cause Russia knows that if they lose it, their position declines hugely.

Ukraine needs more equipment!

I'm hoping we see a combined push by the West to punish Russia for this soon.

We can safely assume NATO ISR is good enough to detect that no? If so, then hopefully Ukraine is able to make the right decisions to best capitalize on a offensive.

Mind you, there is a delayed time period seemingly, images that filtered into videos that were blurry then better video, etc.

Tbf isn't NATO uniquely unequipped with SHORAD platforms due to relying on airpower for AD? Don't Gepards count as SHORAD? In defense of those screaming for Leopards, I recall much screaming over the Gepards, and whenever Switzerland tries to not sell ammo for said Gepards, more screaming is usually heard.

If western equipment keeps them alive vs soviet equipment, its done its job.

Oryx retweeted it, so I figured it’s worth showing

tbf to the UN, the P5 are supposed to be guarantors of things like UN mandated humanitarian and military actions, as Russia is a member of the P5, well….paralysis is the name of the game for Russia.

Video taken from helicopter?

Two threads indicating one, how vital the region is for the economy of Ukraine, and two, even if part of it is a front line, destroying the dam, essentially will make this "recently annexed" region of Russia economically devastated. Sure, the chance for Ukraine deliberately to have done it is possible, but there is exceedingly little benefit for Russia to destroy the dam unless it understands it has little time left as a annexed region of Russia. Honestly it is appalling that the dam was even mined and wired for explosives in the first place. The dam, like ZNPP should have been placed into UN oversight and military objects near it, banned from being nearby.

Excerpts, truly, Russia should burn for its crimes. Also, if Russia intended on staying in the region and holding a defense line, they wouldn't be only allowing Russian passport holders to flee, and would actually be undertaking evacuation efforts and efforts to aid the populace.

Sadly, Russia is all too willing and even eager to disable international organizations from assisting the disaster relief, so I'm unsurprised about lack of ICRC and UN assistance on the occupied side, but I do think the implication of NS1 and NS2 does cause some general unease about strong statements. Also, i do think the refrain from a very strong Western or International response is due to the brazenness of the dam collapse, if indeed Russia opted for such a violation of IHL, a member of the P5, the West needs to get its ducks in order to accuse Russia of such a action, in order to avoid Iraq 2's lack of WMDs and accusations of Western hypocrisy and Russia mounting a strong non-Western aligned PR response.

On that note, we have been criticizing the Russian campaign against civilian targets, we should note Russia is targeting by design healthcare facilities, civilian warehouses and emergency response, Russia's campaign against the energy infrastructure last winter was designed to freeze Ukraine and her inhabitants to death, the Russian civilian targeting campaign is designed to make as much of unoccupied Ukraine as uninhabitable as possible, destroying Ukrainian society and economy.... By all measures, if Russia expects to lose control of the region, allowing a bridge for easy access to the left bank of the river is militarily incompetent. Allowing Ukraine to easily recover her economic agricultural and energy potential is from the aspect of total war, also incompetent. If I want to hold Crimea, but expect the water to dry up when Ukraine retakes the dam, (as Ukraine shown by stopping water in 2014), there's really no negative to blowing the dam. sure Crimean agriculture and water supply will be affected but the reservoirs are full, and if Ukraine has crossed to the left bank, Crimea is about to become the Frontline, the agriculture and tourism on Crimea is gonna dry up anyway. If Ukraine succeeds in cutting the land bridge, the positions in Kherson oblast are not defendable anyhow so destroying the defense line on the left bank is fine, Russia cannot hold without the land bridge to Mariupol. Honestly, I'm 100% on Russia did this deliberately.