[Dargo]

So, with Russian effort on land and air concentrated on the Donbas, they have barely moved 9 days. This is why the trajectory of Ukraine getting relatively stronger and Russia weaker matters. The chance of the Russians to move forward is decreasing. And the Russian effort to throw everything into the Donbas has actually left their forces on the ground in Mariupol surprisingly weak. Would be worth watching if it's too weak. Pentagon says 2 BTG's, about 2000 Russian soldiers left in Mariupol.

Ukrainians claim that the Russians were able to attack the Mariupol steel works because of an inside job. If the Ukrainians have driven them back, Russians can’t play that card again. Ukrainian commander in Chief Zaluzhnyi now saying, far from the Russians being just stalled in the Donbas, that the Ukrainians are now counterattacking around Izyum. (We already knew about Kharkiv)

It might be worth noting that since the Russians launched the Battle of the Donbas on 18 April, the Ukrainians have probably driven the Russians out of more territory in total (esp around Kharkiv) than the Russians have seized in Ukraine incl the Donbas.