Russia’s Counter Offensive In The Donbas Front Is Accelerating

With world attention riveted on Israel battling fiercely to repel attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah, little notice is being paid to the setbacks Ukraine is suffering at the hands of Russia forces. Not only does Ukraine face a significant reduction in Western military aid in the coming months, but Ukrainian forces are being pushed back steadily towards the Dnieper River. Here is the latest report from Russian military correspondent Marat Khairullin

Against the backdrop of growing pressure on the Ukies in the North, Russian troops continue to intensify in more and more new sectors of the front.

Today we need to pay attention to the same Vremevsky ledge, where a month ago the Ukrops pretended to fall asleep, after they announced the virtual capture of Staromayorsky and Urozhayny. After the Ukrainians drowned about 20 thousand of their troops in blood here, they deployed four brigades to the area tyring stabilize the front line, hold the bridgehead and prevent Russian troops from advancing.

However, Russian forces conducted a flanking maneuver on the left yesterday (Saturday) from the the village of Marfopol towards the village of Chervonoye, breaking through the first line of defense of the Ukrainians. At the same time, strong pressure from Russian troops began to the right of the Vremevsky salient in the Ugledar area – in the direction of the village of Prechistovka.

Obviously, the goal of the advance was a maneuver to cut the most important Ukrainian road in this section — i.e., Gulyai Pole – Uspenovka – Velikaya Novoselovka-Prechistovka-Ugledar.

The fighting is taking place on a wide front of more than 50 kilometers. The most powerful group of the enemy sits here, although it has thinned out significantly recently.

It was believed, according to our estimates, that about 60 thousand Ukrainians (about 15 brigades) held the defense here. However, about 20 thousand of them were transferred over the last two months to the Northern Front to stop our “offensive” there.

And now we see a serious increase in our activity on the flanks of this significantly weakened group. It is obvious that Russian troops continue to overload the Ukies along the entire length of the front.

Let me remind you that in the northern direction the front has also expanded over the past 24 hours, where ours are actively increasing pressure on the Ukrops.

To the left of Kislovka, Russians took Kotlyarovka and reached the most important highway N-026.

To the right, Russian soldiers approached Ivanovka.

The active pressure of Russian troops is here at a front of about 8 kilometers.

To the south, our troops entered Makeevka at these hours, and at the same time the movement of our troops began towards the village of Nevskoye. The active front here has expanded to more than 10 kilometers. And these are just two new directions on this front.

The width of the front where we apply pressure is very important, since the Ukrainians’ only method of maintaining defensive stability is to fill the position with fresh meat. They have no other methods.

They definitely can’t add more firepower – all the remaining mobile missile and artillery brigades (the same wheeled self-propelled guns that we hunted all summer) are already heavily deployed. The only thing left to patch up the holes is human reserves.

To the south there is also an active advance on the Donetsk front – in the area of ​​Avdeevka, advance both from Krasnogorovka and Kamenka, and from Opytnoye and Vodyanoye. In total, the Russians chewed off more than a dozen more strongholds.

Active work is underway near Pervomaisky, Staromikhailovka, Marinka – in a word, Ukrainian forces are being leaned upon to the fullest. It is obvious that we are beginning to choke them seriously. Tomorrow, in a large front-line report, we will look at this in more detail. In the meantime, as they say at the front, we don’t say goodbye!