According to Russian media sources, the Eastern Ukrainian Russian army is tightening the encirclement of the Ukrainian army. The Ukrainian army, which is stuck in waiting for assistance, is in a dilemma. The battle of East Ukraine may usher in a real end, but for Ukraine, the outcome is still a disastrous defeat.
According to a report by the Russian media “Newspaper Network”, the attack of the Eastern Ukrainian Russian army is gradually squeezing the living space of the Ukrainian army. Now the Russian coalition forces have been entrenched in the westernmost part of the Eastern Ukrainian salient, the Ukrainian city of Severo Donetsk. All the troops were driven out of the city. Now the Ukrainian army can only defend along the suburbs and wait for help. However, other Ukrainian troops blew up all three bridges behind the suburbs of Severo Donetsk, although the purpose was to stop the advance of the Russian army. But objectively, it also blocked the retreat of the suburban defense Ukrainian army. Now, the Ukrainian army has to give up heavy equipment to cross the Donets River in Siwerski to retreat.
On both sides of the East Ukrainian salient, the Ukrainian army is still under attack from the Russian coalition forces. Now the Russian army has launched an attack in three directions from the head and flanks of the salient. Nearly 70,000 Ukrainian troops will be locked by the Russian army. In this “cauldron”, even the Western think tank ISW has to believe that the current Ukrainian army’s salient in the Eastern Ukrainian region has only two outcomes, capture and death. Regional withdrawal of troops.
The Ukrainian General Staff began to withdraw troops from the Severo Donetsk region.
Now the next operational goal of the Russian army is Slavyansk, a road hub in the East Ukraine region and an important strategic target. The city is a vital node area of the East Ukraine Front, with a population of about 100,000. After the Ukrainian civil war broke out in 2014, pro-Russian armed groups quickly occupied the city, but in the end, under the siege of several Ukrainian mechanized forces, the pro-Russian armed groups were forced to withdraw. So for the next eight years, the Ukrainian army has been strengthening the defense of Slavyansk, including building concrete fortifications and stockpiling ammunition on the city’s main roads.
Slavyansk is a crucial node of the Eastern Ukraine front.
Now, as Slavyansk’s barrier Boniman is occupied by the Russian army, the Russian army is pointing directly at the city. Russian experts believe that Slavyansk is the last fortress of the Eastern Ukrainian front line, and it is also the Russian army after occupying the strategic town of Izum. The next main target, Slavyansk, is the outcome of the war. Because this area is located at the root of the salient, once the city is occupied, the salient formed by the Ukrainian army in the East-Ukraine Theater will be cut off by the Russian army, and the troops west of the city will be completely surrounded by the Russian coalition forces.
According to estimates made by the Deputy Minister of Eastern Ukrainian Information, there are about 60,000 to 70,000 main Ukrainian troops in the area around Slavyansk. Experts from the American think tank ISW, Hurd and Barrows, believed in the battle report that the Russian army’s encirclement was getting tighter and tighter, and it was attacking from three directions at the same time, making it impossible for the Ukrainian army to deal with it. They are the northwest (Izyum), the east (Lisichansk) and the south (Gorlovka). In the Izum-Boliman area in the north, the Russian army assembled 30 BTGs (battalion tactical groups) along the road at one time to launch a decisive attack on Slavyansk. The Russian army has now pushed to a distance of 20 kilometers from Slavyansk. On a kilometer-long section, this distance is already within the coverage of the Russian Army’s 122 and 152mm artillery. In the southern part of the salient, the Ukrainian army is also losing its positions continuously. The Russian coalition forces are approaching the Bakhmut area, and the nearby settlements of Kamyshevakha and Roty have fallen.
Moreover, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, which has been clamoring for the heavy casualties of the Russian army, which is almost wiped out, has to admit that it has seen the new tactical group of the Russian army launch a continuous attack on the Ukrainian army on the battlefield. U.S. think tank experts believe that, given that the Russian coalition has absolute superiority in military strength and weapons, they will continue to consolidate the front line through air strikes and large-scale artillery shelling in the next step.
Now the Ukrainian army can only stick to waiting for assistance. Although the Russian army is gradually tightening the encirclement, there has been no large-scale withdrawal of the Ukrainian army in the encirclement. The main reason is that if the Ukrainian army withdraws, the Donbas area will be quickly destroyed by the Russian army. Occupation is something the Ukrainian military leaders are unwilling to face alone. Moreover, if the troops withdraw, it would be equivalent to surrendering without a fight for the local pro-Ukrainian people, and may even bear the infamy of “traitor”, which will further shake the “solid position” of the Zelensky government. Therefore, the Ukrainian high-level officials could not announce their withdrawal for political and military reasons. Even if the Ukrainian army in the encirclement was eliminated by the Russian army, it proved that they were fighting hard. However, once the main force of the Ukrainian army in the encirclement is eliminated, the Ukrainian army will no longer have any troops to fight the fire in response to the Russian military operations in the East Ukrainian area, and the Russian army can complete the second phase of special military operations in one go. Goal, the East-Ukraine War may come to an end, but for Ukraine, the ending is still a fiasco.