The Mystery of Ukraine's Southern Offensive
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I had a friend of a friend recently tell me that he made a bunch of money trading crypto, but I had never heard of the coin he made all his money on, and I had never heard of the platform he claimed to be trading on. Buddy, I don't think you've made anything except for some Nigerian rich. But it's always interesting when somebody tells you something, but the evidence never appears. And that seems to be what's happening for Ukraine's counter offensive. Now, is it really a drive by Ukraine into Russian controlled territory, or is this actually Russian propaganda eating itself alive? Let's let's talk about it. But before we do, I want to mention today's sponsor, Battle Lab by Reveal. Battle Lab is a show in which emerging military technology gets field tested in game after game, iteration after iteration of field exercises. These scenarios are meant to test the technology and evolve the tactics fought in the war of the future and it's only on Vet TV. So if you want to check it out, you want to click the link in the description. Use promo code combat for a discount on vet your vet TV subscription. Thanks to Battle Lab for sponsoring today's video. Okay, so according to a number of reputable sources, uh Ukraine has gained over 200 square kilmters in the last 5 days, literally between the 11th and 17th of February, marking the fastest advance by Ukrainian forces in more than two and a half years. This is according to AFP uh the Institute for the Study of War and and re-reported by France 24. Now the crazy part is the area of liberated territory is almost equal to the total gains made by Russian forces over the whole of December 2025. This was during the heart of their Pocotus offensive and the largest territorial success over such a short period since Ukraine's counter offensive. Now the the topline story is that this is a function of the fact that Russian forces have lost access to Starlink and haven't yet kind of evolved an alternative. This is something that we would expect to see because the Russian forces for years have had essentially unfettered access to Starlink and Starlink terminals and that has been essential to keeping drones running to keeping uh positions informed. It's been the method of communication in this conflict. But recently Elon Musk in collaboration with the Ukrainian government instituted a uh a registration process in which Ukrainian you have to be essentially a Ukrainian citizen to register a Russian Starlink terminal and uh that has diminished Russian Starlinks essentially bricked them until the Russians can figure out a workaround. And I've heard the Russians are actually working tirelessly to actually recruit Ukrainian citizens in occupied territories to