FROM A VERY SMALL SLIGHTLY LIBERATED HAMLET IN SOUTHERN UKRAINE

DESPITE PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY’S recent stirring rhetoric, news of a tactical pause in the Great Ukrainian Offensive has caused experts to fear that much of the unprecedented success enjoyed so far by Ukraine will be undermined, and the Russian army allowed to escape complete destruction by an evacuation by sea, a la Dunkirk, if the offensive is paused.

“As the President has hinted, with advances everywhere of up to two kilometres, and more in some places, and the capture and recapture of eight villages, the three-week offensive really has exceeded all expectations,” argues British Military Specialist Sir Arthur Wellesley. “It can only be a matter of days, or even hours, now before the Ukrainians are swimming in the Sea of Azov. To halt at this point would be the equivalent of Hitler’s order on 24 May 1940 to his panzers to stop in front of Dunkirk. This allowed the British to organize a naval evacuation of 300,000 or more soldiers, right under German noses. I, and others, fear that any Ukrainian decision to do the same, might have a similar outcome. The Russians are just looking for a chance to leg it.”