NEWS OF THE WEEK I N spite of the paucity of
news from the Russian front there is evidence that the Germans' second offensive if anything exceeds the first in violence. On all the three main sectors progress appears to have been made. Our military cor- respondent discusses on another page the seriousness of the drive towards Leningrad. Since his article was written the Russian communiqué, issued in the early hours of Thursday morning, has spoken of fierce fighting in the neighbourhood of Smolensk, which is a point considerably farther east than the Germans had yet reached on the road to Moscow. Farther south there are repcirts of hand-to-hand fighting in the streets of Kiev. These need not be taken too seriously, for if they are true, which is doubtful, they may only mean that certain armoured divisions have reached the Ukrainian capital in advance of their infantry, with whom they may be unable to regain contact. Loss of territory, of course, matters little in itself, and the Russian armies, so far as is known, remain intact and with their morale still high. But the threat to three key- cities like Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev is not to be under- rated. The war would no doubt go on if all three were lost, but their loss would create almost insuperable difficulties of organisation and supply for the Russians. No such disaster need be anticipated. Russian resistance is still stubborn. But an anxious week clearly lies ahead.
