Both of those videos are quite elderly now Miragedriver, certainly for a fairly fast developing situation like we are seeing at the airport.
There is I think a more general point to be made. Over the last few weeks there has been a continuous almost obsessive feed of videos from the Airport, most of it concentrating on the minutia of the events and almost becoming a soap opera. This means that there was very little of real substance from either side, the Ukraine was concentrating on promoting its Cyborgs, while the NAf presented the Givi show.
In retrospect, certainly from the NAF perspective, it now appears that we have been following a far more subtle and sophisticated programme that was pure misdirection. While we were watching what was really not very much at the airport, the real action was happening outside as the NAF were taking ground along the Southern Perimeter and moving into Peski.
I am also really sure that something similar is happening to the North as well and pushing into Avdeyevka. Cassad published the latest map yesterday, but it is already 4 or 5 days old and misses what I believe will have been a critical four or five days of changes in the Airport region.
I am myself only just starting to appreciate the significance of the current position and its importance to the Pro Kiev forces.
I keep reading from various sources that the war for the Ukrainian side is all about highways and that they do not like going "green" in their operations. I am tending to see that as true and this makes the layout of the road network ever more critical.
The two key roads are M04 and the H20. The M04 is a major Highway that runs from through the two regional capitals of the Donbass coming out of Rostov on Don and after Donetsk heads West towards Dnepropetrovsk. The H20 is another major highway that runs North South from Mariupol to Donetsk and then on to Kharkov via Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.
Both roads intersect around the northern perimeter of the Airport (no doubt one of the reasons why it sited there in the first place. While Kiev holds both roads up to the intersection they have a full manoeuvre and supply loop to the North and West of the City and which cradles Avdeyevka in the crook of the intersection. I think that this route has enabled the Ukrainians to capitalise on their superior fire power and mobility and to be able to resupply and deploy along these roads and keep the defenders of Donetsk off balance. Yes the roads are the front line, but with artillery positions on Peski and Avdeyevka, they will have been able to put down suppressive fire on NAF positions and allow their convoys to move freely. I suspect this is much of what the continued shelling in NW Donetsk has actually been about.
So if the fall of Peski has deprived Kiev the use of the M04 along the northern perimeter of the airport and allowed the NAF to cross the road into Avdeyevka and work out the Ukrainain checkpoints heading north up the H20, this will be like cuttting a key strand of a spiders web. It also leaves Avdeyevka very isolated as there is nothing really to north or west of this suburb for some distance.
The last map did show a tantalising NAF bulge across the H20 north of Avdeyevka. I hope that the next map showing the events of the last week, will be far more revealing.
