NEW – August 6, 2022
The entire front in Donbass began to move. And this movement goes strictly in one direction – towards the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The fighting began immediately for several settlements – Soledar, Bakhmut (Artemovsk), Kodema (south of Bakhmut), Peski, Avdeevka, Marinka.
Probably for the first time in the entire period of the special operation, movement began at the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in several places at once on such a long section of the front. In any case, there has never been an offensive on such a broad front in Donbass.
As a result of the offensive, the village of Peski, from which Donetsk and other cities were intensively shelled for 7 years, was completely taken by the forces of the Russian Armed Forces and the People’s Militia of the DPR. It is being cleansed.
Street fighting began in Bakhmut (Artemovsk). Units of the PMC “Wagner” entrenched themselves on the outskirts of the city near Patrice Lumumba Street.
In Soledar, the eastern outskirts (the “Knauf” plant) were taken. The advance deep into the city continues.
The village of Gladosovo (near Gorlovka) was liberated.
About half of the city is occupied in Maryinka. Fights are underway for the waste heap, which is the dominant height. The attack on Maryinka turned out to be so quick and unexpected for the enemy that one of the colonels of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who was destroyed during the fighting, did not even have time to escape from there. His papers were taken. According to some reports, this is the second colonel destroyed during the offensive. It was during the offensive, and not as a result of an air strike.
In Avdeevka, an offensive is underway from two directions at once – from the east and from the north.
In addition, movement began on the Kharkov front, in the Balakleya region. There are battles for the villages of Gusarovka and Bayrak. Whether this means that an equally large offensive is starting in the Kharkov direction, or these battles are of a local nature in order to improve positions, is not yet clear.
But it is clear that the complete and final liberation of Donbass is approaching. It has a month or a half left.
Most of the settlements that are currently being fought for are small towns and cities that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will no longer be able to hold for a long time.
– Soledar – 10,000 inhabitants (pre-war population).
– Avdeevka – 32,000.
– Bakhmut – 72,000.
– Maryinka – 10,000.
Avdeevka has been turned into a continuous fortified area, besides, there is a large industrial zone on the territory of the city, so the liberation of this city may take longer than the rest.
Bakhmut is comparable in size to Lisichansk, but is located in a lowland and is not so convenient for defence, so its liberation should not be particularly delayed.
The liberation of cities and towns for which the fighting has now begun will take one to two weeks, hardly more.
The situation is very similar to the liberation of the Lisichansk-Gorskoye-Zolotoye triangle, on the outskirts of which there were battles for a whole month, after which the UAF ran out of reserves, the defence began to rapidly fall apart, and within a week the entire area was liberated along with Lisichansk.
Something similar happened in the area of the Uglegorsk thermal power plant, during which the fighting continued for about a month, which ended in a similar way – the reserves of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ran out and the defence of the entire area crumbled, several settlements were liberated within a week.
It will probably be the same with the Seversk-Soledar-Bakhmut line and nearby settlements (Kodema, Zaitsevo, Opytnoye) – they will also be liberated one by one within a week. The liberation of any of them facilitates the offensive in the remaining ones.
At about the same time, we can expect the liberation and cleansing of Avdeevka and Maryinka.
After that, only one line of fortified areas will remain under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbass – Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka, Konstantinovka, Toretsk.
The fortified areas located there will also probably be first treated with artillery for two to three weeks, and only then will the liberation and cleansing begin.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The main thing is that movement has begun and soon the list of liberated cities of Donbass will be lengthened. This means that the daily shelling of Donetsk will also end.
This is not the finish line yet – the finish line will be when only Slavyansk and Kramatorsk remain to be liberated. But it’s not far. Quite close. It remains to overcome the line of fortified areas from Seversk to Bakhmut and the troops will be at the finish line.
The front has moved, ladies and gentlemen of the jury!
The special operation continues!
Aleksandr Rusin
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