The Russian advance in the Donbass, slow, bloody, inexorable

Uthe lifeline is what we call on a boat the rope that ties the sailors so that they do not fall overboard. In a war zone, this is the last route that allows the evacuation of civilians and refueling. When it gives way, the city is considered surrounded. Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, the last two cities in Luhansk Oblast (district) still under Ukrainian control, are connected to Bakhmut in neighboring Donetsk oblast by a single road, the lifeline. Sad irony: this vital axis has become a deadly path. Severodonetsk and Lysychansk will not fall soon, the military entrenched there say they want to fight there to the end. But the road is passing under Russian control and the threat of encirclement tota…