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Pete P's avatar

Good series.

From everything I read, the Russians didn't expect a quick victory. They knew there was a massive well prepared force in the Don Donbass region. The initial maneuvers were not done force superiority.

The goal was to isolate the large Ukrainian force in the Donbass and prevent reinforcement of said troops. Moving on Kiev, with rather limited troops, was merely to freeze Ukraine in place. Russia withdrew once Mariupol and Kherson were taken, so as to start encircling the large Ukrainian force.

Kharkov is a different beast. I suspect Russia overestimated the willingness of the Kharkov oblast to join up with Russia. Russia has tried to minimize civilian deaths, so didn't try to take the city with force.

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Black Swan's avatar

Super series. I was in a lengthy discussion (trending toward debate) with my Dad on the Russia-UKR conflict. He asked me for where I get my info from, I said "a range of places I've come to trust, you have to look for it actively". This series has pulled together so many threads, I will be sharing it with my old man. Hopefully it'll be an olive branch for my trite "well I sure don't get my info from the MSM!" comment. Thanks a lot for this. You've gained a committed reader (Vox Day got me here).

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