Ukraine War Update: Лягушка в кляре

The fighting continues.  The Russians and the Donnie Rebs attacked Maryinka several times by infantry and armor supported by artillery.  Always at night, so it has been hard to tell exactly how many are involved.  Maryinka's sister city of Krasnohorivka  was also attacked in the same manner.  If ever there was a chance this was a distraction, this would be it.  I doubt it, but this is how you'd run an attack like that.  Make a big assault, draw back and then keep hitting the same spot in sufficient numbers to force the Ukrainians or trick the Ukrainians into concentrating.  Then swing around and encircle them.  The old cauldron trick.  

Artillery has ripped up the contact line from Lugansk all the way south to Maryinka.  Shyrokino keeps getting pounded on as well.

There is a large gap though which is interesting largely between Maryinka and Shyrokino where the artillery is not falling, at least in the last 24 hours.  Equally interesting are the reports of massed armor on the other side of the gap.  Pull the Ukrainian reserves to fights away from where you intend to attack and...punch on through.  At least you're only facing whatever is on the contact line, not reinforcements.  Might mean something.  Might not.

Interestingly, also in Donetsk proper, Gorlovka (Hirlivka) and Stakhanov there seems to be small arms firing.  In the last on the list, Stakhanov, there seems to be explosions from the same area as where the small arms firing seems to be taking place.  There are no UAF troops there.  Could it be another Donnie Reb unit being rounded up or wiped out?  Or...?

It seems the economic crush in the DNR has gotten worse: there's no publicly available gasoline in Donetsk.

While I recommend reading anything Bershidsky with a serious grain of salt, this article portrays a lot of what I have harped on about Russians and Putin.