I'm Arthur Snell, a major war is taking place on the European continent with Russia's

invasion of Ukraine, bringing you a series of special episodes to help you understand

the crisis as it unfolds. This is Doomsday Watch.

Welcome back to another Doomsday Watch war bulletin. We want to start off by saying thank

you for tuning in. Listeners like you are the bedrock of our work. If you're finding

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merchandise all from just three pounds a month. Just search Patreon Doomsday Watch or follow

the links in the show notes. I'm joined today by Dr. Mike Martin, a familiar voice to many

of the listeners and he's going to talk about Ukraine's stunning advance in the east of

that country. Mike, welcome. Hello, Arthur. Mike, let's get straight into it. Really

dramatic things are happening on Ukraine's eastern front. I think the latest is it's

7,000 square. I mean, it's hard, you know, it's a lot, isn't it? That's a lot of land.

What's your initial take on what's going on there? Basically, the Ukrainians are really

good at misdirecting the Russians, so they sent them down south to have this big offensive

in Kherson. The Russians deployed loads of troops down there because Kherson is really

important. It's on the route to Crimea, Crimea is a strategic central gravity for the Russians.

To reinforce Kherson, the Russians have to thin out troops from everywhere else, including

this front line to the east of Kharkiv. The Ukrainians spotted an opportunity and just

punched through with armour and then just followed it up with really fast mechanized forces

that in a lot of cases bypassed the Russian combat troops and just went straight for their

logistics and their command and control and all that jazz. And that just caused the Russians

...