Has Russia’s carpet bombing been halted?

International

-DW News

Moscow,
Aug
07:
Uniformed
officers
from
numerous
Western
countries
are
staring
at
laptops
in
a
large
screened-off
room
full
of
provisionally
laid
data
cables.
Many
languages
overlap
as
they
maintain
contact
with
their
respective
high
commands
and
with
the
Ukrainian
government.
According
to
reports
by
several
US
media
outlets
that
were
recently
granted
access
to
the
US’s
Patch
Barracks
installation
on
the
outskirts
of
Stuttgart,
in
southwestern
Germany,
it
is
from
this
room
that
the
United
States
and
its
allies
are
coordinating
the
supply
of
military
aid
to
Ukraine.
And
it
is
believed
that,
in
the
coming
weeks,
this
could
force
a
turning
point
in
the
war.

The
barracks,
situated
close
to
the
airport
and
the
highway,
is
home
to
the
US
Army’s
European
Command
(EUCOM).
On
July
1,
EUCOM
was
placed
under
the
command
of
US
General
Christopher
G.
Cavoli.
Born
in
1964
to
a
US
military
family
stationed
in
Würzburg,
southern
Germany,
he
holds
an
MA
in
Russian
and
East
European
studies
from
Yale
University.

EUCOM’s
hastily
established
Control
Center
Ukraine/International
Donor
Coordination
Center
(ECCU/IDCC)
receives
a
steady
stream
of
purchase
requirements
from
the
Ukrainian
army.
The
starting
point
for
this
was
the
Ukraine
donor
conference
convened
by
the
United
States
at
its
Ramstein
Air
Base
in
Germany
on
April
26.
According
to
US
officials,
more
than
50
countries
are
now
supporting
Ukraine
with
arms
shipments
under
US
leadership.
For
months,
they
have
also
been
coordinating
politically
in
the
Ukraine
Defense
Contact
Group:
deciding
which
country
should
supply
which
weapons
to
Ukraine,
and
determining
the
route
that
heavy
weapons,
such
as
the
US
HIMARS
missile
systems
or
the
PzH
2000
self-propelled
howitzers,
supplied
by
Germany
and
the
Netherlands,
should
take
in
order
to
reach
the
Ukrainian
front.

‘War
is
changing’

This
aid
may
have
brought
about
a
turning
point
in
the
war,
said
Nico
Lange,
of
the
Christian
Democrats.
“The
crucial
aspect
of
the
past
few
days
is
that
Russia
is
now
being
forced
to
react
to
the
Ukrainians’ statements
and
actions,”
Lange,
who
had
served
as
chief
of
staff
to
former
Defense
Minister
Annegret
Kramp-Karrenbauer,
told
DW.
“Until
now,
it
was
the
other
way
around:
The
Ukrainians
were
forced
to
react
to
everything
Russia
did.”

Ukrainian
presidential
adviser
Mykhailo
Podolyak
told
DW
that
targeted
HIMARS
shelling
of
the
Russian
army’s
ammunition
depots
and
command
units
has
enabled
Ukraine
to
reduce
area
bombardment
by
shelling
—
in
the
east
and
south
of
the
country,
at
least
—
“by
a
factor
of
five
to
six.”

Lange
said:
“Russia
has
now
moved
significant
forces
to
the
south,
toward
both
Kherson
and
Zaporizhzhia,
to
reinforce
its
presence
there
and
concentrate
on
securing
and
holding
the
conquered
territories.”
The
largest
nuclear
power
plant
in
Europe,
near
Zaporizhzhia
on
the
Dnieper
River,
is
occupied
by
Russian
forces,
and
an
intelligence
report
by
Britain’s
Defence
Ministry
states
that
Russian
units
are
using
the
nuclear
plant
and
the
area
around
it
as
protection.

Latest
Defence
Intelligence
update
on
the
situation
in
Ukraine
–
5
August
2022

Find
out
more
about
the
UK
government’s
response:

https://t.co/8Uv3JnpVgm

????????

#StandWithUkraine
????????

pic.twitter.com/lck9qAjhqM

—
Ministry
of
Defence
????????
(@DefenceHQ)

August
5,
2022

At
the
beginning
of
August,
the
head
of
the
International
Atomic
Energy
Agency
reiterated
his
urgent
demand
that
Russian
forces
grant
IAEA
access
to
the
facility
for
inspection
and
repairs.

“From
this,
you
can
tell
that
the
war
is
changing,”
Lange
said,
“and
that
Russia
is
now
forced
to
respond
to
the
things
Ukraine
is
doing.”
Russia
is
not
able
to
“escalate
indefinitely,”
he
said
—
and,
in
fact,
is
in
“tremendous”
military
difficulty.
“The
Russians
have
gone
on
the
defensive
both
north
of
Kharkiv
and
in
Kherson
in
the
south,”
he
said.
“They’re
making
clear
that
they
are
determined
to
hold
this
territory.”

Ukraine’s
counteroffensive

The
Ukrainian
president,
Volodymyr
Zelenskyy,
has
been
promising
a
counteroffensive
in
the
south
for
weeks
now.
“A
Ukrainian
attack
will
not
look
like
the
Russians’:
this
rolling
barrage
that
destroys
everything
in
its
path,”
Lange
said.
“Rather,
it
will
also
rely
on
partisans,
on
uprisings
in
the
occupied
cities,
on
mobile
operations
behind
enemy
lines.”

Leaflets
from
the
Russian-occupied
city
of
Kherson
keep
appearing
on
social
media
channels,
depicting
posters
with
warnings
directed
at
the
occupiers:
“We
know
all
your
patrol
routes,”
they
read.
And:
“Kherson
is
Ukrainian.”

“The
Russians
are
having
great
problems
controlling
these
areas,”
Lange
said.
“There
is
a
lot
of
partisan
activity
in
the
occupied
part
of
Zaporizhzhia
oblast.
Russian
patrols
are
being
killed
at
night.
In
Melitopol,
too,
as
in
Kherson,
there
are
posters
directed
against
the
Russian
occupiers,
there
are
leafleting
campaigns.
Something
new
is
constantly
being
put
up.”

The
Ukrainian
governor
of
the
largely
Russian-occupied
Luhansk
region
recently
tweeted
about
an
attack
by
partisans
in
the
district
of
Bilovodsk.
Ukrainian
partisans
reportedly
shot
and
injured
the
Russia-appointed
mayor
and
his
deputy.
Since
then,
the
governor
said,
the
Russians
had
been
unsuccessful
in
searching
for
the
Ukrainian
resistance
fighters.
Such
information
cannot
be
independently
verified.

the
occupiers
in

#Bilovodsk
were
conducting
an
operation
to
search
for
partisans
who
fired
at
a
car
with
“the
people’s
mayor
and
his
deputy”.
Both
collaborators
were
injured.
The
search
for
local
avengers
was
unsuccessful.
The
partisans
keep
the
occupiers
in
suspense

pic.twitter.com/7E2DH7Bd6t

—
Serhiy
Hayday
(@serhey_hayday)

August
4,
2022

What
is
surprising
here
is
the
location
of
the
incident.
Bilovodsk
lies
deep
in
the
Russian-occupied
region
of
Luhansk
in
eastern
Ukraine,
just
40
kilometers
(25
miles)
from
the
border,
north
of
what
was
previously
known
as
the
“Contact
Line.”
From
2014
until
the
start
of
the
Russian
invasion
in
February
this
year,
the
Contact
Line
separated
the
occupied
territory
in
Luhansk
andDonetsk
from
the
Ukraine-controlled
parts
of
the
region.
The
regional
governor’s
tweet
can
therefore
also
be
interpreted
as
a
signal
to
Western
supporters
that
the
partisan
struggle
is
gaining
momentum
—
even
in
outlying
regions.

This
area
is
beyond
the
range
of
the
M31
rockets
that
the
US
has
been
supplying
so
far
for
the
HIMARS
rocket
launcher.
The
M31
has
a
maximum
range
of
84
kilometers.
However,
these
artillery
systems
are
also
capable
of
launching
ATACMS
(Army
Tactical
Missile
System)
missiles,
which
have
a
range
of
300
kilometers.
Ukraine
is
asking
the
Western
contact
group
and
its
operations
center
at
EUCOM
in
Stuttgart
to
send
ATACMS
missiles
as
well.
So
far,
the
US
has
opposed
this,
because
with
these
missiles
the
Ukrainian
army
would
also
be
able
to
fire
into
Russian
territory.

In
recent
months
there
has
been
an
increased
willingness
to
supply
Ukraine
with
smarter
weapons
systems.
The
Ukrainian
foreign
minister,
Dmytro
Kuleba,
has
said
that
it
felt
like
striving
to
reach
the
next
level
“in
a
video
game.”
Unlike
in
a
game,
he
said,
the
Ukrainian
soldiers
killed
on
the
front
line
only
had
one
life.

Source: DW