Page 2 - Donbas Offensive News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Tells cnn that anecdotal reports reveal that some russian troops and officers are refusing to obey orders to move forward in the donbas offensive. now, though, we're going to go to frederik pleitgen live this morning in riga, in latvia, you have a fascinating look at the training that is taking place in the black sea. exp explain. >> reporter: you're right, john. it is special forces training. one of the things we have seen as we traveled here along nato's eastern flank is that, of course, the war that is going on in ukraine is of great concern. there is very few countries that support ukraine...

Move for russia may be headed east, towards the eastern front where russia is pushing to. it is slow progress for the russians. they're throwing everything at the donbas offensive and we're not seeing the speedy advance, that frankly would suggest this is not some lengthy war of attrition over the summer, jim. >> interesting analysis, nick paton walsh, as always. thank you. retired lieutenant colonel mark hurling joins me now. great to see you. i want to get your thoughts on the news coming into cnn and ukrainian military officials are confirming this, that some dyv civilians are being evacu...

Educated generals and they are being directed by putin, of course, it didn't looked good artillery. they rely on artillery and mass and fear, if you turn around and look back, you are going to get shot. so i think they're going to have a hard time doing this but i will say this. the ukrainians did suffer losses. we don't know what those losses are. we are seeing some pretty desperate fighting in the early stages of the donbas offensive. there is been a lot of pre premature -- fighting by people in the west don't understand how vicious this battle is going to be with heavy artillery barrages. i...

Council's erasure centre and a former editor of the ukraine alert blog. thanks forjoining us. i wanted to talk to because i wanted to get your expertise so to speak on where you think this russian offensive is headed now because it seems clear to many people watching the situation that, you know, it looks likely to remain pretty much the same at least in the short from where we are standing. i the same at least in the short from where we are standing.— where we are standing. i think that is riuht. where we are standing. i think that is right- the _ where we are standing. i think that is righ...

Their forces are very brittle after that withdrawal from the first phase of the war. they're demoralized. they're having to rebuild their logistics support and rebuild their fighting capability. but over time if they can batter away at the ukrainian defenses, particularly in the south, then it's possible that they could expand in toward dnipro and then head toward miykolaiv and ultimately odesa. and i think their goal would be to control the southern coastline in a way that makes ukraine a landlocked country. and that then sets them up for a future war against ukraine to once again take kyiv. ...