12-16-2022, 09:53 AM
https://www.yahoo.com/news/melitopol-lib...00991.html
Lots of this has been said before, but it does appear that Melitopol has become at least a very plausible "next step" for Ukraine. While they have had the railroad link from Donbas to Crimea under their HIMARS footprint for a while, they are now apparently targeting doing the same with the M14 in the Melitopol area. Having it in the HIMARS footprint doesn't mean that they "control" the route by fire, because the HIMARS presence isn't "continuous". However, it does mean Russia will pay a significant price to use it. Obviously the goal is to get it under a 155mm footprint which can pretty much close the route. At that point, Russia will again have some hard choices to make. Presumably Russia is going to do all they can to make sure that doesn't happen. We shall see.
Lots of this has been said before, but it does appear that Melitopol has become at least a very plausible "next step" for Ukraine. While they have had the railroad link from Donbas to Crimea under their HIMARS footprint for a while, they are now apparently targeting doing the same with the M14 in the Melitopol area. Having it in the HIMARS footprint doesn't mean that they "control" the route by fire, because the HIMARS presence isn't "continuous". However, it does mean Russia will pay a significant price to use it. Obviously the goal is to get it under a 155mm footprint which can pretty much close the route. At that point, Russia will again have some hard choices to make. Presumably Russia is going to do all they can to make sure that doesn't happen. We shall see.