Hard winter for Ukraine.

 NO ELECTRIC, NO HEAT OR WATER

SINGLE DIGET TEMPERATURE

While fighting continues in Ukraine it is compounded by extreme cold and minimal services. The Mayor of Kiev has recommended that all who can, should evacuate the city as electric is only available in 50% of the city and that is not continuous. Kharkiv has reported that 80% of the city is without electric power.  Gas service is also often not available and without electric most central heat is not working, this makes water also in short supply. It is estimated that near 600,000 have left Kiev in search of better conditions. 

Russian air strikes have for the time being been reduced but not stopped. Is it because of a dearth of available targets or a humanitarian pause? Fighting continues in much of the front, with Russia continuing to make incremental gains. It is a period of extreme cold, little heat and minimal food, all reminiscent of previous military action in this region. The soldiers on the front  often in trenches without heat or adequate food must be suffering an unimaginable ordeal.

The German campaign in WW2 was bogged down and suffered similar conditions along with a long supply line that aided in their demise. Napoleon lost almost his entire army in 1812, with only around 100,000 of his 600,000 man army surviving the attack on Russia, many either froze or starved.

It illustrates why Russia has engaged in a war of attrition, keeping the fighting close to their supply lines, while forcing the enemy to move equipment and supplies many hundreds of miles. It is also why the west has been reluctant to put troops into this affair, as any conventional war in this region has always resulted in high casualties, much of it due to the extreme winter conditions.

With many more weeks of winter ahead, we can only faintly feel the pain of those caught up in this catastrophe.