NYTimes (no paywall): Melitopol in the south is Ukraine's next target.
Just guessing, but I expect the next offensive to begin in January. Melitopol is 40 miles from the present front lines. If Ukraine can liberate it, the area from Crimea to the Donbas will be freed. All Russian supply lines in the south run through Melitopol. Ukraine has been gathering an army in the area for an offensive since the summer. Russia is already digging defensive trenches in Crimea.
Targeting One Southern City, Ukraine Hints at the Next Front in the War.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine is stepping up efforts to isolate and degrade Russian forces in and around the strategically vital city of Melitopol, ahead of what is widely expected to be the next major phase of the war, a Ukrainian offensive to drive Russian forces from southern Ukraine.
Kyiv has been using long-range precision missile strikes, sabotage missions and targeted assassinations to home in on the city, which lies about 40 miles behind the front lines in the Zaporizhzhia region. Melitopol is known as the gateway to Crimea because of its location at the crossroads of two major highways and a crucial rail line linking Russia to that peninsula and other territory it occupies in southern Ukraine.
A bridge in Melitopol across the Molochna River was sabotaged Monday night — an act that both Ukrainian and Russian officials attributed to Kyiv’s forces — with video showing that two pillars supporting the span had been blown up. The bridge’s destruction compromised a key Russian supply route to Melitopol from the south.
Both Ukrainian and Russian officials have acknowledged the recent Ukrainian strikes and attempts to hit Russian command centers, ammunition depots and supply routes in Melitopol, whose prewar population was about 150,000. The aftermaths of some of the recent attacks have been captured on video broadcast on social media by Russian soldiers.:
Targeting One Southern City, Ukraine Hints at Next Front in the War https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/world/europe/ukraine-russia-melitopol.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhlSlUaACbKWsIjolqLmOLI2LF7m3zkJSmTRHNY0v8OAoHF_krJZLZkf9w3mTSHQdsLeJkeeMtP9M4NdUp8V1vv5ZKehJUOJyhypI_tD25o1smIBLph_Hq3YzPpbe0lz-L65x_bazPrXPHbgiZ3Nx8l9cU-DSyi3nYCwKbBFuJniJIpjbp6WMcMFXpXbzKKvvLoFx1-JN2ACxjc4QQ2UOxeMirByZ_es_lTNVUPVi-VCS938m0-69hDONgIP6eZLhUofcH2hLl5GXWIr9BGBK0Ys0ucRU18lbKd
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