After months of propaganda about supposedly heroic Ukrainians who defeat the bungling Russians and their cold war weaponry, the media is now starting to give a different more truthful image of the situation. Apparently lighting buildings with blue/yellow lights or putting the blue/yellow flag next to your twitter avatar and saying "I stand with Ukraine" doesn't do shit.
Ukrainian volunteer fighters in the east feel abandonedStuck in their trenches, the Ukrainian volunteers lived off a potato per day as Russian forces pounded them with artillery and Grad rockets on a key eastern front line. Outnumbered, untrained and clutching only light weapons, the men prayed for the barrage to end — and for their own tanks to stop targeting the Russians.
“They [Russians] already know where we are, and when the Ukrainian tank shoots from our side it gives away our position,” said Serhi Lapko, their company commander, recalling the recent battle. “And they start firing back with everything — Grads, mortars.
“And you just pray to survive.”
Ukrainian leaders have projected and nurtured a public image of military invulnerability — of their volunteer and professional forces triumphantly standing up to the Russian onslaught. Videos of assaults on Russian tanks or positions are posted daily on social media. Artists are creating patriotic posters, billboards and T-shirts. The postal service even released stamps commemorating the sinking of a Russian warship in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian forces have succeeded in thwarting Russian efforts to seize Kyiv and Kharkiv and have scored battlefield victories in the east.
But the experience of Lapko and his group of volunteers offers a rare and more realistic portrait of the conflict and Ukraine’s struggle to halt the Russian advance in parts of Donbas. Ukraine, like Russia, has provided scant information about deaths, injuries or losses of military equipment. But after three months of war, this company of 120 men is down to 54 because of deaths, injuries and desertions.
The volunteers were civilians before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, and they never expected to be dispatched to one of the most dangerous front lines in eastern Ukraine. They quickly found themselves in the crosshairs of war, feeling abandoned by their military superiors and struggling to survive.
“Our command takes no responsibility,” Lapko said. “They only take credit for our achievements. They give us no support.”https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/26/ukraine-frontline-russia-military-severodonetsk/Also:
Russia gains control of another city in Ukraine's eastRussian-backed forces have taken control of the city of Lyman in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials say. Claiming Lyman would represent the second major success for Russia this week, following the fall of Svitlodarsk further south.
Control of Severodonetsk and neighbouring Lysychansk is also the focus of Russian forces as they fight to seize further territory in Donbas.
UK PM Boris Johnson says Russian forces continue to "chew through ground" in the region, adding that Putin is making slow but palpable progress. Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Zelensky says his country is not "eager" to hold peace talks with his Russian counterpart - but it will have to anyway.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61593803
