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Where can the Russian army advance after Artyomovsk
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.by Sergei Adamov [REGNUM] The breakthrough of the sabotage group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine into the Belgorod region was aimed at minimizing the political effect of the fall of Artyomovsk, a strategically and logistically important center of Donbass, which the Ukrainian side called the “Bakhmut fortress”. This circumstance was pointed out by the Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov and military experts.  In the most liberated Artyomovsk - the second peaceful day. On May 22, preliminary demining has already begun. The Russian forces that liberated the city are checking buildings for explosive objects, Denis Pushilin , acting head of the DPR , told TASS . Units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, retreating from the city, mined dozens of basements of multi-apartment and private houses, including those where civilians were hiding, a source in Donetsk law enforcement agencies said. According to him, most of the explosives (hidden in boxes from under household appliances and put away in the basements of multi-storey buildings) were found on the western outskirts of Artyomovsk, which the VSE held until the last. People evacuated from Artyomovsk are placed in the rear Shakhtyorsk - this was announced by the mayor of this city Alexander Shatov. In a conversation with TASS, he mentioned 3.5 thousand people in temporary accommodation centers. At the same time, it is in Artyomovsk that an interdepartmental headquarters to provide assistance to the liberated territories will be deployed in the near future, Pushilin informed on May 22. THE COMMAND OF THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE IS LEFT TO ADMIT THE OBVIOUS The liberation of the city, which took 224 days (the first serious battles here date back to the beginning of August 2022), was completed, recall, on May 20. Soon the Ministry of Defense officially confirmed that, based on the results of the work of the Wagner assault detachments and with the support of artillery and aviation of the Southern Group of the Russian Armed Forces, the city was completely taken under control. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief Putin congratulated the "Wagnerites" and military personnel of the Armed Forces on the liberation of the city, government awards await the distinguished fighters. The enemy suffered serious losses in manpower (in open sources there were estimates from 40,000 to 50,000 killed - the last opinion was voiced by military observer Vladislav Shurygin ). The Armed Forces of Ukraine also suffered comparable media damage - which, as mentioned above, forced Kyiv to conduct a "media operation" to break through the border in the Belgorod region. The military leadership of Ukraine did not confirm the surrender of Artemovsk. Although this has already been de facto done by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who promised back in February that “ no one will surrender Bakhmut (the name of the city in the terminology of the Kiev regime. - Approx. ed.).” Answering questions during the G7 summit in Hiroshima, the Ukrainian president nevertheless acknowledged the fall of the city, but emphasized that “nothing was left” in Artyomovsk, Channel One notes. Later, Zelensky began to refuse his own comments. At the same time, according to the latest statements of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a battle is still going on in the city, and Ukrainian troops are holding some buildings on the “outskirts of the city”. The persistence with which the entourage of Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny denies the surrender of Artyomovsk suggests that the loss of the city could result in new problems at the front. At the same time, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports on the success of the “counteroffensive” operation against Artyomovsk, reporting daily on the advance of several kilometers. THE CHANCES OF AN EFFECTIVE "COUNTERATTACK" ARE REDUCED In fact, the completion of the Artyomov operation was accompanied by strikes against the Ukrainian rear, both operational and strategic - and these strikes continue, military expert Alexander Mikhailovsky emphasized in a commentary to IA Regnum. On May 22, residents of Kramatorsk, which is only 30 km from Artyomovsk, reported the defeat of a Ukrainian army ammunition depot, equipped in an industrial area on the outskirts of the city. At the same time, high-precision long-range weapons worked out at the Dnepr military airfield in the Dnepropetrovsk region, where a large number of military equipment and personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have accumulated. Hangars with weapons and ammunition, aircraft and a technical position for preparing missiles were hit on the Dnepr, the Defense Ministry said. In May, after a long break, attacks on the objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine located in the central and western regions of Ukraine resumed. In addition, Mikhailovsky notes, in the last weeks and days of the battles for Artyomovsk, assault units managed to knock out a lot of equipment recently delivered through NATO, and which will obviously go into the spring counteroffensive announced by Kiev. “Only from what has been captured in the photo and video in recent days, to say that in the battles for the southern outskirts of the city, a British Spartan armored personnel carrier, an armored car Dingo ATF production, and an armored personnel carrier YPR-765 delivered from the Netherlands were shot down,” Mikhailovsky listed. "A similar technique burned down on the highway between Artyomovsk and Chasovy Yar, when trying to transfer it to the epicenter of the battles. Such equipment is equipped with fresh parts, which are prepared at the training grounds of NATO countries." Together with the purposeful knocking out of Ukrainian air defense systems, the “Artyomov meat grinder” reduced the enemy’s ability to carry out not one-time sorties, but large-scale effective offensive operations, experts believe. It is possible that it was the defeat in the battle for Artyomovsk that forced the Joe Biden administration to agree to the supply of F-16 military aircraft to Kiev, Mikhailovsky believes. But, he notes, “even in Washington they admit that the planes do not have time for the announced “offensive” . The analyst points out: “That is, the prolongation of the battles for the city cost not only heavy losses, but also did not solve anything at all in terms of preparing the Armed Forces of Ukraine for a counteroffensive.” At the same time, for our troops, overcoming the Artyomov line provides important operational opportunities, experts believe. WHERE CAN YOU GO NEXT According to the interlocutors of IA Regnum, the liberation of Artemovsk opens up the possibility for cutting off the Seversky ledge - the liberation of the city of Seversk (in fact, to the north of Artemovsk), where the garrison of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is located in a semi-encirclement from the north and south. The second opening direction is the western one, to the city of Chasov Yar, where the enemy formations defeated in Artyomovsk retreated. Strategically , "the liberation of Artyomovsk allows our troops to further develop the offensive, both to the south - towards Dzerzhinsk, with a subsequent exit towards Krasnoarmeysk, and to the north - towards Krasny Liman towards Izyum," shared his assumption with IA Regnum ex -deputy head of the People's Militia Department of the DPR, retired colonel Eduard Basurin. In his opinion, further advancement to the Dzerzhinsk-Krasnoarmeysk region and in the Krasnolimanskom direction will allow encircling the AFU grouping, which was considered the most combat-ready - in the area of the cities of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka and Konstantinovka. "The liberation of Artyomovsk in the future will allow us not to storm the cities, but to surround them, offer the enemy to surrender or, in case of refusal, destroy them," the source said. Posted by: badanov 2023-05-23 |
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