which they could do cou counterinsurgency operation, they were able to push the russians back in all these areas right here. now, this is going to be a different terrain. this is all flat. this area around kyiv was hilly. the area in the east is basically flat with a few little exceptions. what we re going to probably be seeing here is the russians coming down from the northeast, potentially using this area in the east to move a little bit forward, potentially coming out of the south. big issue in the south for them is mariupol. that is hindering them quite a bit in their operations. so one of the things that we have to look for is the russians going into the specific areas here in the donbas and actually using these areas to kind of gain momentum. we heard of them going into the town of kremena. they are using that town as a
of rail compared to the united states. so all of these transportation areas are really critical for any army moving forward. so that s one reason to get it. there s also a bit of an emotional reason for russians to do this. the mayor of kremena was sanford. he was a pro-russian mayor assassinated a month ago. that was one of the things that the russians may be looking at as kind of a revenge aspect here. so there s that. but the more important thing for them is to move down in this area and grab the transportation modes so they can move further and in basic terms lob this part of the country off the rest of ukraine. against all odds, some ukrainian defenders are holding out in mariupol. the defense is hanging on by a thread, really. what happens if and when it collapses? so, don, this is the iron and steel area that was talked about, all this gray here.