Victory Chronicles
-DAY 202

Above: Ukrainian soldiers rip up an enemy flag in newly-liberated Kozacha Lopan, Kharkiv.  Photo via RFERL

• Ukraine has retaken 6,000 square km (2,400 square miles) of land from the invaders in the last week.  Ukraine is struggling to process all the equipment, ammo and weapons left behind by fleeing enemy forces, not to mention enemy POWs that could number in the thousands.

• Ukrainian Defense Minister Okeksii Reznikov warned that, although the offensive went better than expected, it’s still too early to celebrate.  Ukraine has a big task ahead in defending newly-liberated territory in the event that the enemy can muster a serious offensive operation.

• The successful counterattack last week raised troop morale sky high while further depressing and demoralizing the enemy.  Reports are coming in of mass desertions and large convoys of military and stolen civilian vehicles racing to the ru border. Cracks are appearing in the tiny dictator’s fan base as mil bloggers and elected representatives are increasingly harshly critizing orc incompetence and the foly of the whole endevour.

• Ukraine has hopes that the massive demonstration of skill will stimulate the West to bring the big weapons now to hit the enemy hard and push them out within the current year. In an interview with Radio NV, military analyst Serhiy Kuzan remarked, “We still don’t have enough weapons for an offensive, which is what we expect from our Western partners to launch this offensive.

• “Let me remind you that superiority in both aircraft and missiles for such a war remains with the Russians. But only thanks to the skill of our mechanized brigades, our infantry, we won back and liberated such an amount of territory that the Russians had not been able to capture for months.” Concerning eastern Ukraine, Mr Kuzan noted the enemy is pushing an offensive only in the Avdiivka and Bakhmut areas, adding, “Slovyansk, Svyatohirsk, the north of Donetsk Oblast are already inaccessible to them.”

Above: Humiliated from defeat in Kharkiv, orcs targeted water and power stations in Kharkiv causing widespread blackouts on Monday.  Video screenshot via NDTV

• In retaliation to Ukraine’s spectacular routing of kremlin combatants last week, the enemy is purposefully targeting civilian utility infrastructure as temperatures start to decrease across Europe.  In response, President Zelensky is urgently calling for increased air-defense capabilities from the West.

• The Ukrainian military reported that the enemy sent 18 missiles and 39 airstrikes Sunday night.  At least four civilians including workers at power stations were killed in nine different oblasts. The enemy hit schools, residential buildings and critical civilian infrastructure. Ukraine is steeling for more of the same.

• On Monday night, President  Zelensky denounced attacks on civilian infrastructure, calling them “a sign of the desperation of those who invented this war. This is how they react to the defeat of Russian troops in the Kharkiv region. They can’t do anything to our heroes on the battlefield and that’s why Russia is directing its vile strikes against civilian infrastructure.”

• Ukraine has a high rate of success utilizing the air defense capabilities that it has, but, because shelling civilian infrastructure is one of few enemy competencies, the sheer number of enemy strikes makes stronger air defense an imperative.

Above: Photo via Britannica

• The head of the Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz Yuriy Vitrenko reported that heat in centralized systems will be turned down to 17-18 C (62-64 F) this winter to preserve energy.  The heating season will start later and end earlier than usual.  Mr Vitrenko advised the public to stock up on warm clothes and blankets.

• Ukraine produces about 60% of the gas it needs domestically and imports the rest from neighbors at market prices. After a series of serious energy spats, including kremlin shutting down supplies repeatedly in winter, Ukraine stopped buying gas from moscow in 2014.  Using the soviet-suild transit pipe system, Ukraine still transports ru gas to Europe and buys gas back from European neighbors.

• Ukraine will need an estimated 10 billion on bridge financing to buy needed gas this winter under current conditions.  If the enemy invader continues to destroy heating, power and storage infrastructure, the amount could be much higher. About 50% of Ukraine’s gas fields are located in the Kharkiv region, four miles from the front line. Coal supplies are concentrated in illegally-occupied Donbas.  Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant is currently being used as an enemy military base.