Russia-Ukraine Flash Report - 3/23/22 10:00 PDT
Added 2022-03-23 17:14:33 +0000 UTCI'm extremely busy with the real job today. I can't do a deep explainer, but there is something in the general staff report that explains what we saw on NASA FIRMS last night, and covered in the 3/22 SITREP.
The general staff reported that Russian forces attacked the town of Teterivs'ke, but were pushed back. This is almost 20 kilometers north of Borodyanka!
Is there fighting around Teterivs'ke? NASA FIRMS showed it last night, and we were left scratching out heads because it was so far away from Borodyanka. We weren't aware of any Ukrainian troops in that area. We assessed the fighting to the north of Borodyanka was against Ukrainian forces moving south in yesterday's SITREP, and that the General Staff had overstated their position on Tuesday. We believed that the "attack" on Borodyanka was defined as we're now close enough to drop artillery shells on the city.
The General Report yesterday and today did not state that Ukrainian forces have taken control of the Borodyanka, which is considered the key to encirclement of the Russian and Chechen forces northwest of Kyiv. However, if Ukrainian forces are holding a line as far north as Teterivs'ke, then the Russian forces in that pocket are damn close to surrounded - they are certainly cutoff from supplies and Ukrainian control to the north of the pocket could be a corridor 10 to 20 kilometers deep.
It also raises another question, if the attack on Teterivs'ke is coming from the south (which is exactly what NASA FIRMS shows), are Chechen forces abandoning Borodyanka?
