Thought I'd try out another thread that has been on my mind. So much has been plastered across the internet that it is easy to miss important developments that actually affect the direction of the war. This is the place to post them as you see them. This is not the place to post well known information about the poor demographic trends of Russia and Ukraine. Nor the place to post blow by blow accounts of battles for towns like Pokrovsk (still not 100% conquered after 18 months).

Some examples of notable developments would be the introduction of fiber optic drones or the Kursk incursion. Operation Spiderweb would have certainly qualified to be included here... but was such a bombshell that it probably deserved its own thread. While Ukraine's campaign against Russian oil continues unabated (another Shadow Fleet tanker was hit today and probably a refinery too), I don't think there is much left to say until a culmination or tipping point is reached.

Anyways, I saw an article a few weeks back that was a revelation, but I didn't think to save it or start a thread at the time. The gist of it was that in the age of drones... defending wide open spaces is now much easier than defending urban areas. As Russians have managed to infiltrate Pokrovsk proper it has proven really, really tough to root them out from buildings and cellars. But crossing open ground in massed armor formations is now pretty much a suicide mission. In light of what the Chechens did to the Russians in Grozny this was a newsflash to me... but actually makes total sense upon further reflection (plus seeing a recent picture of a field absolutely littered with Russian corpses). It turns out that taking Pokrovsk proper may have been the easy part for Russia. Time will tell.