1/ The Russian occupation in Ukraine faces a "catastrophic" situation, according to alarmed Russian warbloggers. "Total drone terror" is now taking place across the entire occupied region, with no place being safe any more. ⬇️
2/ 'Donetsk MartynoVa' warns that all of Russia's gains in Ukraine are now at risk due to a "summer of bloody terror" being wrought by Ukraine's seeming air supremacy:
3/ "The saddest thing is that it's not just the facts that are frightening, but the incredible dynamics that threaten to easily wipe out all the achievements, sacrifices, and plans of a war that has been going on for 12 years.
4/ "Just a couple of weeks ago, the occasional drone strikes and attacks on the Mariupol-Donetsk highway and on the land route (and on all roads leading to the border) were rather exceptional, but now total drone terror has become commonplace.
5/ "Ukrainians call it "we've taken control of the highways." You can call it whatever you like, but the dynamics of recent days seem literally catastrophic.
6/ "Any roadside will reveal the skeletons of burned-out trucks and cars. Civilian buses are being hit. News chats bring endless discussions of road closures in the south because "something happened." Drones not only attack, but also scatter mines that kill people.
7/ "Gasoline is disappearing and rising in price. You open the news in the morning and see people filming videos of themselves unable to return home from Crimea because they're out of fuel.
8/ "At the local gas station, they're all in shock—fuel tanker drivers are refusing to go to Donbas and quitting if management starts pressuring them. Zero condemnation, as they say, and one hundred percent understanding.
9/ "You speed up like crazy if you cross paths with a fuel tanker on the highway. And if it's not far behind, trying to cross the open ground as quickly as possible.
10/ "A demonstrative drone raid specifically on [the city of] Donetsk begins, like clockwork, at midnight. An absolute psychological demonstration of air superiority, on schedule, that's what it is.
11/ "Even if it doesn't hit anything, it's a cheap and effective way to put pressure on people's psyches, triggering a daily death-defying mode. They fly low. Some fly fast, while others sound like a stalling chainsaw choking over a roof.
12/ "While it was quieter tonight than yesterday, on weekend mornings, drones begin flying leisurely over the Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia highways. It's certainly not just a matter of the desire and ability to cut off logistics and deprive our territories of fuel.
13/ "Civilians are being forced to abandon travel to our coast and Crimea. The Ukrainians have been working for this for so many years, and they're happy that the moment has arrived.
14/ "Crimea is looking forward to the [holiday] season, and given what's happening here, I somehow didn't realize the scale of the problems.
15/ "And only the Crimeans' words that the season is already being disrupted brought me back to the thought that the peninsula simply won't have anything to live on if the summer of bloody terror continues. Reservations are already being hastily cancelled, I'm told.
16/ "Naturally, there's a parallel reality in Donbas—with grand projects, mortgages, social activists, and election promises—and, I don't know about you, but I can't seem to connect these two perspectives.
17/ "The Horlivka tragedy teaches us that no effective antidote to drone abuse has been invented. You can destroy a thousand drones, but a hundred will be enough to drench the region in blood.
18/ "The tragedy of the Minsk agreements teaches us another lesson: that you can't negotiate with the enemy, and that the "keep quiet while they kill you" policy leads to disaster.
19/ "That's why the (generally sensible) draconian measures, 12 years into the war, when all mention of overflights and hits was banned, caused such consternation in society.
20/ "It's not the measures themselves, but the anticipation of having to endure torture again with one's mouth sewn shut. It was precisely this sense of impending collapse that sparked such a storm of social discontent.
21/ "This is the Donbas trigger, about which it would be foolish to remain silent.
I won't go into detail—you see what's happening for yourself and can judge for yourself.
22/ "The only consolation in this situation is that Russia has always survived not because of, but in spite of, everything.
23/ "And indeed, we can recall many things over these years that seemed improbable, victories snatched where it seemed hopeless and we should have prepared our shrouds. Things were hard won, but the turnaround in our favour was dramatic." /end
Source:
t.me/martynovadn/63…
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.