“Russian artillery is shooting from morning until evening,” said Volodymyr Pohorilyy, 43, intelligence commander of the Dnipro-1 battalion, which holds several key positions in the region. “If our side shoots one their way, we get 10 or 15 back.”
The Russian military, having failed in its botched attempt to seize Kyiv and overthrow the Ukrainian government, has regrouped for the second stage of the war. Moscow has redirected nearly all its remaining artillery to a single area. The Kremlin’s hope is to accomplish its new stated goal of taking all of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which together comprise Donbas.
“In some respects, this is one war but two distinct campaigns,” said Michael Kofman, a Russian military analyst at Virginia-based CNA. “The first was to decide whether or not Ukraine would survive as an independent state — and Russia lost that conflict decisively. … This second phase is about what territory that independent Ukrainian state will ultimately control, and that remains very much in contest.”…
“The amount of firepower, the number of explosions, the length and duration of the attacks — all of that together, and the fact that you can’t defend against it, you can’t shoot down the rounds, means it’s a lot of casualties and it is also incredibly demoralizing,” Kagan said. “It is disorienting. This is where ‘shell shock’ comes from.”
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