Vladimir Putin’s summer offensive is fully under way: all day and night, Russian infantrymen run at Ukrainian positions in endless waves. Even when struck, the survivors don’t retreat or take cover but keep running forward, until there are so many of them that no amount of drones or shells can stop them. That’s how Russian troops have broken into yet another Ukrainian region: the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Turning another Ukrainian region into a war zone strengthens Moscow’s hand at the negotiating table
The push came near the village of Horikhove, on the border between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as the Kremlin declared a new phase in its ‘denazification’ campaign. Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, claimed that the Russian penetration into the region is part of an effort to create a buffer zone in Ukraine, but this phrase is no more than the Kremlin’s usual code for territories it has yet to seize but fully intends to.