Donbass in the showdown, ten kilometers of armored vehicles and artillery: “Russians have the decisive shoulder, but we won’t give up a meter of our land”

The time has come for the reckoning in Donbass. The new push from the Russians, expected for days, “has already begun”, as explained by Vadym Denysenko, advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior. «The Russians are amassing their forces – he explains -. Yes, there are not yet the great battles that have been talked about so much in the last few days. But in general we could say that the offensive has begun ».

It is clear that in Donbass, where it all began eight years ago, there will be the first showdown between Russians and Ukrainians. The new offensive was anticipated by a series of maneuvers on the field that have been registered in recent days. In the east of Ukraine, almost on the Russian border, the Federation army made a convoy about ten kilometers long and with about a hundred vehicles, including armored vehicles and artillery, move towards the south in the Velykyi Burluk area. east of Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine: this confirms that Russia wants to concentrate on the Donbass.

The images show in the convoy “armored vehicles, trucks with towed artillery and support equipment”. Yesterday the city of Dnipro suffered seven missile attacks and a bombing hit the airport, causing severe damage. Meanwhile, in the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukrainian soldiers thwarted eight Russian attacks, reports the Ukrainian Army General Staff in its latest update on the situation on the ground. “There will be an offensive soon, a great battle for the Donbass”, because “we see that there is an accumulation of forces, means, an enormous amount of equipment”, says Sergiy Gaidai, governor of Lugansk, the oblast easternmost of Ukraine.

The Russians, however, are slowing down to regroup, they do not want to repeat the blunder of the blitzkrieg committed in Kiev, and aim to deliver a decisive push. Vladimir Putin, who is determined to get his hands on the whole Donbass, not just the one controlled by the pro-Russian. Without a result in this part of the country, the Kremlin leader will never return to sit at the negotiating table, especially after the withdrawal from Kiev. The Ukrainians are aware of this, but they are not afraid of confrontation, “we will not give up even a square meter of our land”, as the soldiers of the Sarmat battalion, Mariupol brigade, stationed in the Pisky garrison, the last outpost before the Donetsk airport controlled by pro-Russians.