© Stanislav Krasilnikov/SputnikRussian servicemen serve a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher
The forthcoming second anniversary of Russia's military operation in Ukraine is a symbolic date, but hardly a cause for celebration. In fact, events have to be studied from a considerable remove in order to see the big picture.
Positional deadlockAny discussion of a breakthrough on the front and military defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) has long been met with the counter-argument:
Let us take Avdeevka (a key Donbass stronghold) first, and then we will talk.
On Saturday, that goal was officially achieved.
So what now? In order to crush the enemy and impose our will, we need an effective strategy, a plan for successful combat operations.
By last year, such a system was well established on the defensive side - in the absence of a multiplier advantage, neither side is yet able to break through the front with its own means and conduct successful offensive operations.
Back in the autumn, Avdeevka was described as a kind of test for the Russian Army. The Avdeevka operation began with an attempt to cut off the city and create a ring of encirclement 10km in diameter.
On October 10, after massive artillery preparations, mechanized attacks were launched in two directions - across the railway north of the Avdeevka chemical plant and from the south, from the village of Vodyanoye. Like the enemy's attacks on Rabotino in the summer, these efforts faltered, and our command - relying on artillery, attack drones, and small assault groups - shifted the center of gravity right into the city itself.
And now, after a fifth month of fighting, the Avdeevka epic has concluded.
Comment: An extraordinary act of courage. Aaron Bushnell has since been reported as having died in Israeli media, although US and UK media states that he 'remains in critical condition'.
As the above article briefly mentions in its final paragraph, this is not the first time an American protester has self-immolated in protest at American military support for Israel's genocide in Gaza. A young woman did so outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta on December 1st last year, but the US police and media covered it up so that her name remains unknown.