Page 2 - Abombard News Today

Each day, everybody makes the same calculation. the same half solution to war. crossing the border may protect you from danger but it does not always protect you from fear. brendan kearney is a retired colonel in the us marine corps, previously chief of staff of the us marines in europe. he joins us from san francisco. thank you forjoining us. if vladimir putins amen ukraine is to advance steadily and bombard cities into submission, he is surely succeeding, particularly in the south. would you a...

Of russian tanks bearing down on that road, heading into the capital. now, they are facing a fierce fight. ukrainian forces are hunkered down in positions all along that road. you can see them there. presumably using javelins or some time of anti-tank missile to pick off the tanks one by one and creating some formidable resistance in the process. but the concern here is that obviously, this feeds into the hypothesis that russian forces are attempting to completely encircle the city. we heard thi...

Northwest out of kherson to try to encircle odesa. they have ships in the black sea. we havent seen any maritime moves on odesa, but it certainly seems to be what they are considering doing. it would make sense that if they did that they would also try to come up on a ground perspective coming down from the north, and that appears to be what theyre trying to do or why they went through kherson. theyve had more progress in the south, but in the north they continue to be frustrated. theyre not mak...

Would use chemical weapons. im wondering, do you still believe that? does that fit in with what you just said? that would be in the sick calculus of vladimir putin. >> yes, it would be what is the maj r issue. bombard the city, then what the troops try to march in. and if they ran into resistance, its myer belief they would have done it. that would fit the template. >> appreciate your time as

And its true that despite the horrors playing out in ukraine, this is not yet on the scale of aleppo or grozny. but it is — as quentin sommerville said — from the same russian playbook. its this approach. if you dont have the manpower to take a city street by street, then they simply besiege it and starve and bombard people while conducting strikes on particularly hospitals, to make life unlivable in those cities and force a capitulation. this is particularly relevant because if putin was ho...

Him? >> absolutely, he will use everything and weve seen this in the -- in the last days. he will use more aggressive military power. weve seen the bombard more of cities. he will use the strength that he has. he will use repression and terror. that makes him definitely more dangerous and that also will define the outcome of the war in general. um, what this gives as an opportunity for ukraine is that they are better positioned at the moment on the ground with the support of western weapons. and...

Real intensification of ukrainian defenses. they have been pushing the russians back with some significant success. previously, the main area that russian forces had been focused on was the sort of north-northwest and west of the capital. last week they made a push to the east in a suburb, that push is continuing. the worry is that the ultimate goal is to try to encircle the city entirely. currently the south of the city is still largely open, but ukrainian authorities have said over and over ag...

The bombardment of the capital city goes on the bombard of other cities around ukraine goes on all of this happening as the two sides prepare for further peace talks today those talks appear to have made a little bit of progress yesterday. the two sides saying they were breaking up for a pause in the talk to work on some details. that gives a glimmer of hope that when they resume today there could be some progress. but in the meantime, as you plainly see, the russian bombardment of the capital k...

I remember the first time the ukrainians ran through open russia, and even as the ukrainian delegation was moving to the base. they started to bombard, kyiv, and some other cities. but when i say an important city, i really should not say so. because every city, every village is important. and one of the great things that happens is that the world and we -- mariupol, kharkiv, kyiv, and odessa for this matter, which are sometimes raised. they remain outside the public. >> thank you very much for ...

About 15 miles away from the capital city of kyiv. how concerning is that to you? what do you expect to unfold in the upcoming hours? >> well, look at mariupol. that is classic soviet tactics, surround, bombard, starve and then send your troops in. now kyiv is much, much larger but soldiers have a tendency to stick to their doctrine, stick to their tactics, so what were seeing in mariupol morbidly it may be a preview of coming attractions. >> all right, general mark kimmitt, thank you for your t...