Hundreds of thousands of people to be evacuated from Donetsk, Ukraine - DW News

[TexasTowelie]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ordered hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate the Donetsk region. It's the scene of fierce fighting, as Russia pushes to take over more territory in eastern Ukraine.

[PortTack]

1. The orcs are about to meet their maker!

[Warpy]

2. The problem is the area is full of Russians resettled there by Stalin

after his round of ethnic cleansing in the 1930s. Some of them are still loyal to Russia. Zelensky is giving them those assurances for a reason, evacuees taken into Russia have found themselves in concentration camps. Some have gotten out, taking circuitous routes through Poland to get back to Ukraine. Most are still there and their future is uncertain.

I don't know what Putin is playing at, but depopulating the area will give the Russians no civilians to hide behind and no slave labor to import to Russia, if that's what they're up to.

They've already made sure the breadbasket will be empty for the next decade or so, fields pockmqrked with crump holes and full of unexploded ordinance, most of it Russian.

I just hope that crazy sonofabitch doesn't start lobbing nukes.

[PortTack]

3. President Zelensky is telling all civilians as he should, get out of the way. We are coming.

As far as emptying the bread basket, President Zelensky says they are expected to harvest approx 60% of their usual crop. Yes, it’s down but they can’t destroy all of it. The country is mostly that, flat black earth fields.

Ukraine will win and recover. It will take a decade or more and lots of money, but it will happen. And, the Ukrainian ppl can finally put stalin’s holodomor and other times of russian aggression behind them

[Warpy]

4. It's amazing to see how quickly they're rebuilding

in places like Irpin and even Bucha. The problem in the bread basket is the number of unexploded shells and that is what will take the most time to clear. While 60% of the land is unaffected at present, it will be affected as Russia continues to wreck what it is clear it will never really have.

In the meantime, Putin's claim that the Donbas has been annexed and is now part of Russia is an attempt to get around the Russian law that says nuclear weapons will be used only if Russian territory is threatened. He's given himself the justification to start lobbing nukes, and if he does, it's all over. I think that is what scares me the most. He uses that first nuke, NATO is going to jump in.

However, Ukraine will win this war, Russia simply lacks the manpower to occupy even part of their territory. Putin is going to find out what other empires have found out, that even when it looks peaceful in the history books, it is very costly to try to occupy them.

[PortTack]

5. Yes... the Ukrainians are running circles around the orcs. Their strategy has been spot on

Following their defeat in Kyiv the Russians should have gone home instead of massing in the Donbas. The Ukrainian forces took heavy losses in the east, but it was worse for the orcs in terms of man power and equipment which was their plan. Worn down invading forces now make half hearted attempts to inch forward with little to no success.

They are shuffling troops to the south in an effort to reinforce their hold on the Kherson oblast without much success either. Bridges for resupply gone, ammo and munitions depots bombed out.
The shadow army inside the city of Kherson is making a huge difference as well, supplying the regular troops with intel.

I hear ya about the nukes. Pootie better think twice about that. The UN has said they will not recognize their move to annex areas. They don’t care, but the west does.

Malcolm Nance says the Ukrainians will prevail. He knows of which he speaks!