Update on Russian military operations in Ukraine for January 30, 2023:

- Russian forces continue encircling Bakhmut in the east and pushing toward Vugladar in the south;

- pro-Ukrainian Western volunteers admit the bleak situation Ukraine faces overall and specifically in Bakhmut;

- one volunteer admits that Wagner is better trained, better equipped, better organized and lead than Ukrainian forces fighting in Bakhmut;

- this volunteers admits Wagner is surrounding and may possibly cut of Bakhmut like in Mariupol;

- this volunteer admits Ukraine suffers from immense corruption and incompetence coupled with Western sponsors indifferent to their growing crisis;

- this volunteer admits that tanks are a "secret acknowledgement that things aren't going well;"

- the volunteer would like to see more Western advisors leading Ukrainian units in battle, a slippery slope toward direct NATO intervention;

- growing skepticism continues to surround pledged Western main battle tanks;

- US policy makers appear to suggest this strategy may be essentially a bluff to convince Russia it is more prepared than Moscow for a long-term conflict;

References:

Willy OAM (YouTube) - Untold Reality Of Wagner Group In Bakhmut Ukraine | First Hand Account, What The Media Wont Tell You:
https://youtu.be/PKZpYglZrW4
CNN - Ukraine’s new tanks won’t be the instant game-changer some expect:
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/27/europe/ukraine-war-nato-tanks-analysis-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
New York Times - Tanks Alone Won’t Turn the Tide of the War in Ukraine:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/us/politics/tanks-ukraine.html
RAND Corporation - Avoiding a Long War, U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict (2023):
https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA2510-1.html
RAND Corporation - Extending Russia, Competing from Advantageous Ground (2019):
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html

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