When Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley talks about the war in the Donbas, and the struggle against Nazis in Ukraine, it’s not hearsay. He has been there from the start, and served in Vostok Battalion and XAH Spetsnaz Battalion in 2014, 2015 and 2017, fighting on the side of the Donetsk People’s Republic – now a region of Russia. He was also baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church.
This last week Bentley shared a new update from downtown Donetsk with some really big news.
Sputnik reported:
“The biggest thing that everybody’s talking about recently is the advances of our guys in the Avdiivka front. They’ve taken the Terrikon (slag heap) which is a literally strategic position from there. They can observe for miles around.”
Watch: 4-minute interview with Bentley:
Not unlike Mariupol with the Azovstal industrial area, in Avdiivka the Coke plant is an area where Ukrainian soldiers have deeply fortified and are holed up.
From the conquered slag heap Russians can survey that area, as well as the whole town of Avdiivka, and even further up to the rear areas.
Bentley suggests that the pincers are closing, since the visibility allows Russian forces to ‘bring in drones, artillery, rocket fire, whatever we need in order to block off reinforcements and reprovisioning’.
We’ve seen time and again – the Russian war of attrition and its boa-constrictor ’embrace’ of cities.
The cauldron.
Bentley also explains why both Russia and Ukraine are committing so many forces to this particular battle.
“Avdiivka is a street strategic position along the whole Donbass front. When it falls, the Donbass front is gonna shatter like glass. Once Avdiivka is out of the way Russia will be able to move in any direction that they want for as far as they want there. It’s one of the strongest positions that’s ever been built in this war. And once it’s taken, the Ukrainians aren’t going to have anything else, any defensive positions that can anywhere near or match what they built up in Avdiivka.”
Bentley spent a lot of time on the Avdiivka front, even since he first worked there at in 2014, including when it was briefly conquered by Russians.
Is he is also well informed about the Ukrainian fortifications in the city.
“The Ukrainians were building up the defensive positions, tunnels. There’s a whole network of tunnels under that city now. It’s like a whole underground city underneath the regular city. So it’s a major position.”
Bentley is a communist, so maybe not the person we’d ask for geopolitical advice, but on the other hand he has lived in the Donbas for over a decade, so he knows the reality on the ground. And through we him we confirm that, while Russian geopolitical goals surely play a role in the war, there is also a very real humanitarian issue for Donetsk civilian areas, under constant Ukrainian artillery fire for the last 9 years.
“Another big development is that, as the Russian forces have moved forward on the northern side of the pincer, the Ukrainian artillery that’s been bombing Donetsk for almost 10 years, ever since the beginning of the war has had to move back further and further. So we’re getting to the point where literally, you know what, what we’ve all been praying for here in Donetsk all these years, the crops are getting ready to be moved out from artillery range. They’re not gonna be able to hit the cities, the civilian parts of Donetsk anymore. And that’s a beautiful thing.”
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The post A Texan in Donetsk: Russell Bentley Explains the Huge Relevance of the Russian Siege of Avdiivka – ‘Once It Falls the Donbas Front Will Shatter Like Glass’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.