In the annals of warfare on Ukraine’s eastern front no shortage of absurdities abound. A mad max, surfaced from the abandoned swamps of a Russian installation in Kharkiv, fished for artillery shells he would subsequently wash, polish or shine for dispatch for fire in Ukraine’s dwindling Soviet-era artillery pieces.

During the Ukrainian ‘Spring’ counteroffensive, whose outcome a security agent, a reservist from the United States of America’s Air Force, forecasted through illegal leaks called the Texeira leaks, the British’s own intelligence agency for warfare published an update, attributing Ukraine’s slowed advanced on Mariupol to shrubbery.

A German, who witnessed both Ukraine’s slow advance and its mad max scavengers, decried a short of artillery, saying Ukrainians would throw stones at the Russians.

During Syrsky’s most recent interview on the failed Kursk operation, the recently promoted General celebrated Russia’s inability to advance “a single kilometer” in the Donbas, to which Ukrainian military commanders on Facebook retorted: “But if this is stabilization, I am a ballerina. The Russians continue to advance.”

The area the Ukrainian military commander highlights is the area defined as a ring between Nevelskoe and the river Vol’cha (i.e., кольцo между Невельском и рекой “Волчья”). With Russia’s recent capture of the village called, Цукурино (i.e., Tsukurine), the Russians have begun to tighten the noose about this pocket. Ukrainian military bloggers have echoed the commander’s statements, noting that Russia has already begun to overthrow Ukrainian forces in Izmailivka.

One of Russia’s news agencies recently announced that both Kurakhova and Selidovo are encircled. If so, the encirclement of these two villages strengthens Russia’s ring around the ballerina’s cauldron. If the Russians established control over Kurakhova and the highway south of the reservoir to villages in the Vuhledar direction, Ukraine’s ground line of communication (i.e., H15) from the north of the two villages, Novoukrainka and Bohoyavlenka, each less than 30 minutes from Kurakhova, is severed, deepening Russia’s control over the Area of Responsibility the village of Vuhledar subtends.