El NYT se hace eco de los movimientos en torno a Melitopol. Empieza la nueva fase. Ukros vs Mobicks congelados en los agujeros que hacen para escapar de los drones bombarderos.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/13/world/russia-ukraine-news#ukraine-ratchets-up-attacks-in-a-russian-occupied-city-described-as-a-gateway-to-crimea
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine is stepping up efforts to isolate and degrade Russian forces in and around Melitopol, a city in the Zaporizhzhia region that would figure prominently in any Ukrainian offensive to drive Russian forces from southern Ukraine.
Kyiv has been using long-range precision missile strikes, sabotage missions and targeted assassinations to put pressure on the city, which is known as the “gateway to Crimea” because of its location at the crossroads of two major highways and a vital rail line.
Officials in both countries have acknowledged the recent attacks on Russian command centers, ammunition depots and supply routes in Melitopol, whose prewar population was about 150,000. The aftermath of some of the attacks have been captured on video shared on social media by Russian soldiers.
It is not clear whether the strikes were the prelude to an offensive or a deceptive ploy as Ukrainian forces prepare to move on Russian forces elsewhere. But military analysts described them as significant and said they fit Ukraine’s pattern of using precision missiles to strike Russian logistical targets.
Melitopol is a key hub, and regaining control over it could help Ukraine’s forces take back Russian-held areas in the Zaporizhzhia region and Kherson regions. That could then potentially give them a path to drive Russian forces back to Crimea.
“All this hangs completely on Melitopol,” Oleksiy Arestovych, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in his daily podcast. “If Melitopol falls, the entire Russian defense up to Kherson collapses, and the Ukrainian armed forces ‘jump’ right to the border with Crimea.”
On Monday night, a bridge in Melitopol leading over the Molochna River was sabotaged by Ukraine’s forces, Ukrainian and Russian officials said. Video showed two pillars underneath the span had been blown up, compromising a key Russian supply route to Melitopol.
A day earlier, the Melitopol Christian Church — which the city’s exiled mayor said was being used as a Russian base — had gone up in flames.
That came after residents reported at least 10 large explosions on Saturday night and Sunday morning, although it was not clear whether some of those were Russian air defenses at work.
In one instance, several blasts hit a hotel and restaurant complex on the outskirts of the city, according to Ukrainian officials and video of the aftermath. The mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said that the facility was being used by Russian intelligence.
Evgeny Balitsky, the Russian-appointed head of the part of the Zaporizhzhia region that Russia claimed to annex in September, said that the facility had been hit while “peaceful citizens” were eating on Saturday evening. He said that two people had been killed and 10 injured.
Ukraine has also targeted members of the local Russian occupation administration. Nikolai Volyk, the deputy head of the occupation government in Melitopol, survived an bomb attack outside his home last week, the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
On Tuesday afternoon, a loud explosion was reported in the center of the city, Mr. Federov said in a statement. The explosion was followed by sustained gunfire, he said. It was not immediately clear what might have been targeted.
