“For weeks, Mykolaiv was on the front line. Russian tanks and infantry made incursions into the streets of the southern Ukrainian port city. Russian artillery blasted civilian neighborhoods. Now, with Ukrainian forces pressing a counteroffensive, the Russians have been pushed back and Mykolaiv’s 470,000 people are attempting a tentative return to normality.
Coffee shops and some restaurants are open again. Supermarkets have been restocked with fresh groceries. Bank branches have reopened. Municipal buses and trams run the streets. Mothers with children play in playgrounds as the sound of artillery thuds in the distance. Fresh tulips and roses are available in a variety of shades in a row of downtown flower shops.
“It’s not that we are no longer afraid, but we are getting used to this. We have to survive. Nobody wants to leave the city anymore,” said Yulia Fistik, 23, who works alongside her mother in one of the flower shops. “Business is good. There are lots of soldiers in town, and they all buy flowers.”” WSJ
Comment: The first article I have seen concerning a Ukrainian counter-offensive. pl
Ukrainian Counteroffensive Near Mykolaiv Relieves Strategic Port City – WSJ
Good news, banks open, grocery stores open, folks buying flowers, children playing in playgrounds, buses running, dining out at a restsurant, etc….
This speaks to the fact that the Russians are not intent on destroying Ukraine and killing civilians.
Watch the video of Putin at the sporting event. He does not seem to be a madman to me.
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/03/evidently-us-chines-summit.html?m=1
Nuremburg, 1938. Banks open, grocery stores open, folks buying flowers, children playing in playgrounds, buses running, dining out at a restaurant, etc….
This spoke of the “fact” that the Nazis were not intent on destroying Czecholslovakia and Poland and France and Denmark and Norway and…and…and…and killing civilians.
Watch the film of Hitler at the Nuremburg rally. He did not seem to be a madman to his followers then.
If you’re looking for Nazis, you should look at the Ukrainian militias rather than Russia.
MG
No, it speaks for a defeat for Russia.
MG
Ah, you too look forward to Ukrainian defeat.
Pat,
I don’t know about that. What I do know is that I’m looking forward to my granddaughter’s wedding in April. Love is in the air!
Mark
Pat,
You’ve acknowledged that the US caused this. Why are you cheering for folks like the Azov Battalion? I don’t get it.
Mark
Mar Gaughan
Not for them. For the Ukrainian people and their armed forces.
I’m all for the Ukrainian people. So, having agreed with you on that, how does the Ukraine rid itself of the Azov battalion and others like them?
MG
Ah. Nazi obsessed. Idiotic.
Pat,
Nobody is winning with an Azov style battalion. Only creating perpetual war through a revolving door of retribution. If you have to rely on that for defense you have already lost. Who else do they hate? It’s not just Russians from what read.
Babeltuap
What the f–k are you talking about? The Azov battalion is a tiny part of the Ukrainian forces.
The Azov battalion is a tiny part of the Ukrainian forces, but it’s a major and critical part of the Putin fluffers, narrative.
Exactly. And nobody is denouncing it. That is the apex of the problem of this revolving door of hatred. Children emulate parents. The Children become adults bringing up events that happened 70 years ago. Nobody is Cher Pat. Can’t turn back time. It happened. A lot of this nonsense going on is trying to hold people accountable that had nothing to do with it. Maybe just honor the Minsk agreements instead of acting like that never happened either.
Babeltuap –
The Azov’s don’t hate Russians. They are mostly ethnic Russians from eastern Ukraine. They do hate Putin and the traitors in DNR and LNR.
Leith – I did some reading on Azov. Yes they are ethic Russians from eastern Ukraine, but their ideology is expressly white supremacist. Their ideology holds that white Europeans are superior to other races, notably asiatic races to their east. Their avowed aim is to cleanse Ukraine of anyone who is not sufficiently European.
You could call Azov “self hating Russians”.
James –
And there are Russians in the Donbas breakaways, and in Russia itself, and in some former SSRs whose avowed aim is to cleanse their territory of anyone who is not sufficiently Slavic.
Their militias in DNR & LNR have been charged by the UN and Amnesty International with war crimes. Including rape, torture, murder of civilians, looting, etc. Sounds kinda like what my Grandma used to say over her wood-fired stove when my cousins and I were calling each other names. Something about “the pot is calling the kettle black”.
Leith –
I have been to Kiev. I didn’t much like the people there they reminded me too much of the Russians. I have been to Lviv – I quite liked the people there because they reminded me of the Czechs.
Azov has all of the bad qualities of the Russians (times three) with none of the good qualities of the people in Lviv.
So in allying w/Fascist Russians to defeat Fascist Germans in WW II, America had already lost? I was never in combat so I must ask you are there such purists in battle? The Azov Battalion is just that and how many men can that be; 900-1500?? Who, and for what reason, would give so much press coverage to one battalion. BTP, just rejoice at a Ukrainian victory.
Babeltuap,
The Azov people were denounced before:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
The author of that piece is a bit quite of late; which is a moot point with the Russian army fighting in the Ukarine. Even if that force is ground down into oblivion it is going to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Russians.
It seems consistent with the general incompetence already displayed by the Russian Army they would still believe they are on the offensive and not dig in and prepare to defend the areas they occupy. That along with the credible reports of low morale indicate, to me, a ripe field for counter offensives. If the Ukes can get that ball rolling…
Ukrainian forces appear to be driving SSE from Mikoliev and are just west of Kherson city center and south of the Kherson Airport. Russians were filmed trucking their remaining helicopters away from the airport after losing 10 or more to Ukrainian artillery and drone strikes. Supposedly the forward headquarters of a CAA, probably the 58th, was also hit by a separate artillery strike near the airport. We’ll see what develops.
Ukrainian counter attacks are also underway east of Kyiv. The shit’s on, good buddy!
Saw that video of them towing helicopters. How far are they going to tow them like that? All the way back to the Crimea maybe? It must be 100 miles or more by road. Helicopters get moved by those tow tugs on ramps and taxiways just like 737s & 757s, but not on streets and highways. They’re gonna need help from the Michelin Man long before they get to a repair facility.
Both counter attacks failed with heavy losses, a barracks outside Nikolaev also got hit hard by a cruise missile attack.
LondonBob
Whose counterattacks?
An old PPS3 being used on the Donbass front
https://twitter.com/Taurevanime/status/1504938594456248327?t=pi1IrxSFcQZ3VXY7BQS4lQ&s=19
However, things are getting grim in the South.
Fighting in the centre of Mariupol, and Ukrainians acknowledge they’re cut off from the Sea of Azov.
If the Russians manage to get that Crimea-to-Donetsk/Luhansk corridor, it’s not clear how exactly Ukraine can ever get it back.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60774819
I follow Strelkov on Telegram, and he is extremely frustrated with the Russian operation. He writes today that the Russian troops are stuck everywhere, and that the Ukrainans soon will go on the offensive.
SE
It has already begun.
Maybe it’s just a diversion?
Rodney
What is a diversion? A Russian defeat?
Ukrainians do not want to be dominated by Russia. They have lived that life for centuries.
But by choosing the “West”, they will not be free either. Ukraine, if they successfully resist the Russians, will be forced to accept open borders immigration from the muslim world and Africa as well as endless PRIDE parades.
Ukrainians lose both ways.
Hungary and Poland both received sanctions from the EU this week for their resistance to Soros style migration policies.
Yes you’re right, Poland and Hungary have been so sanctioned. Still they stick to their guns re immigration. Should Ukraine retain her independence I believe the EU will accept her. I also believe that Ukraine will also deny Muslim immigration and be sanctioned. In the words of Miles Davis …”So What?” It is not 1500 anymore. Ukrainians must choose b/t devils on the east and west.
It appears the Russians loosed a Parthian shot at Mykolaiv yesterday morning:
“At six o’clock this morning, five Russian bombs fell on a military barracks in Mykolaiv. 200 people were in the building. 90 percent are said to be dead” – Machine translation from the Swedish
https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/raketattack-i-morse-levande-och-doda–gravs-ut-ur-ruinerna/
Some more from the same source using machine translation:
“Since Russia is unable to capture the city with its foot soldiers, they subject it to daily attacks from the air. On the Black Sea, the invasion war has taken the form of a rocket and air war. “
It sounds curiously naïve, how unfair are the Russians to use air force!