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Hello and welcome back to the Battleground Ukraine podcast with me Saul David and Patrick Bishop.

Well, the Ukrainian advance in the northeast and the southeast of the country shows no sign of slowing down.

Every day we hear of new gains and new Russian withdrawals,

often at high speed. The Ukrainian momentum is growing every day and it's beginning to feel like the whole thing could be over sooner rather than later. Yes, indeed. The Russian army seems to be in

disarray and the possibility of total collapse no longer seems fanciful.

Anyone who knows anything about Russian history will detect some precedents here.

And later on, we're going to be talking to someone who knows far more about that than most.

And that's Anthony Beaver, or should I say Sir Anthony Beaver, whose reputation was made with his landmark book on

Stalingrad and he'll be giving us a brilliant analysis of where the Russian military is today

based on his vast knowledge of its history. Well, that's later. But first let's talk about the

progress the Ukrainians are making in a little bit more detail. The push is two-pronged. In fact, you could

argue it's even three-pronged at the moment, but the two main prongs are in the north, of course,

following the capture of the key town and logistics hub of Lyman. And the movement from there

is pushing east and it's threatening the city of Sivra Donetsk in La Hansk,

which I hope listeners will remember. The Russians expanded an enormous amount of resources on

when they captured it earlier in the war. At the same time, they're pushing down from the north,

southwards, down towards Gerson, along the west bank of the Dniepro River,

which is a very, very key feature in the geography of the war.

...