This morning’s situation report from the UK’s Ministry of Defence describes current Russian operations as concentrated on the seizure of Luhansk. “Russian ground operations remain tightly focused, with the weight of fire power concentrated within a small sector of Luhansk Oblast. Over 30-31 May, fighting intensified in the streets of Sieverodonetsk, with Russian forces pushing closer to the town centre. Over half of the town is likely now occupied by Russian forces, including Chechen fighters.” Operations elsewhere are characterized by long-range missile strikes. “Beyond the Donbas, Russia continues to conduct long-range missile strikes against infrastructure across Ukraine. The strategically important bridge links Ukraine with Romania and with Ukraine’s ports on the Danube, which have become critical to Ukrainian exports after the blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports by Russia.”
US Defense officials assess the Russian operation as “plodding and incremental,” and see little sign, according to the Telegraph, of the Russian army’s having corrected the mistakes it made in the opening phases of its invasion. In brief, the Russian forces, having abandoned the rapid, combined arms maneuver of which the first phase of their war proved them incapable, have reverted to a slow advance into rubbled cities reduced by the heavy area fires of relatively immobile artillery. Thus they have achieved local success in the Donbas, most recently in Luhansk, but due to the inherent…
