[ColonelCassad] Quite often we encounter a lack of understanding by ordinary people of what is happening at the front. In some ways, this is the fault of television experts, who for eight years have dispersed jingoistic patriotism about “worthless Ukrainians”. In some ways, this is a banal lack of understanding of the specifics of military operations in the region.
In the Kharkov and Lugansk regions, relatively slow rates of advance of the allied troops are maintained. In the south, in the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions, progress is almost imperceptible at all.
Therefore, some may have an erroneous idea that the second phase of the NMD announced by the Russian military command has stalled.
However, it is not.
The main task of the second phase involves the establishment of complete control over the Donbass. And here it is necessary to take into account several factors:
▪️The Donbass grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine consists of the most trained and motivated units, including those deployed from Western Ukraine.
▪️The enemy had eight years to think over and implement a defense in depth along the entire line of contact with the forces of the LPR and DPR.
▪️The Ukrainian side deliberately does not evacuate the population from the combat zone, using civilians as human shields. Evacuation is carried out only when military personnel mix with civilians as part of the evacuation convoys.
All this, of course, complicates the main task of the second phase of the SVO, but does not make it impossible.
Currently, the allied forces are making active attempts to break into the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in several places at once:
▪️Slowly but surely there is progress in the Izyum direction.
▪️The allied forces have completed the operational encirclement of Liman: the entire area is under the fire control of the Russian side.
▪️The battles for Rubizhne continue, where the enemy's defense is gradually being crushed.
▪️The people's militia of the LPR liquidated a powerful fortified area in Novotoshkovsky and advanced towards Orekhovo.
▪️The assault on Popasna continues: for a month and a half regular troops, "Kadyrovtsy" and "Wagnerites" have been slowly taking the city.
Popasnaya is called almost the Stalingrad of the current special operation. The comparison, although overly pretentious, is still correct. Yes, there is a successful operation to liberate Mariupol.
But if we compare the scale of the forces and means involved, as well as the prospects for the operation, then Popasnaya is one of the critical points for the success of the second phase of the NWO.
What gives control over Popasna:
▪️the ability to continue the offensive simultaneously in several directions;
▪️exit to a large transport hub - the city of Bakhmut, the occupation of which will disrupt the supply of part of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
▪️the possibility of creating several boilers with cutting off the Slavic-Kramatorsk group from the rest of the forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass.
Understanding these prospects, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred part of the units from the Rubizhne-Severodonetsk-Lysichansk agglomeration to Popasnaya. This made it possible to partially compensate for the losses suffered by the 24th Lviv mechanized brigade.
And although the allied forces already control most of the city, the assault on Popasna is still one of the most difficult operations at once for several reasons.
Difficulties of Popasnaya
▪️The settlement is located on a hill, where there is a whole network of natural water obstacles. This significantly slowed down the pace of the offensive in the early days.
▪️For 8 years, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have made a powerful fortified area out of the city, surrounding it (especially along the southern outskirts) with a system of platoon and company strongholds, which are interconnected by communications. These communications make it possible to covertly transfer personnel and armored vehicles to firing positions with the possibility of prompt withdrawal to shelters.
▪️The allied forces will probably deal with the liquidation of strongholds, where units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are now trying to withdraw from the city, after the liberation of the territory of Popasna itself.
▪️Most of the city is a private sector, in which Ukrainian servicemen dug trenches, trenches and equipped dugouts in the basements. Cleaning every house takes a lot of time and effort.
▪️In rare multi-storey buildings, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine created positions for snipers and fire spotters.
▪️There are still civilians in Popasna, which does not allow the allied forces to fully use aviation and artillery.
And so it turns out that it will take more time to storm a town of twenty thousand than to liberate half a million Mariupol.
However, this operation is gradually coming to an end.
At the moment
▪️Under the control of the allied forces is the entire eastern part of the city, the railway station "Popasnaya-1", the building of the local administration.
▪️Several strongholds were liquidated around the city.
▪️There is an additional cleansing of the southwestern outskirts and preparations for an offensive towards the Popasnyansky car repair plant.
▪️The servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine gradually understand the futility of further resistance and surrender in small groups.
The result of Popasna's liberation will not be long in coming, and the second phase of the special military operation will proceed at a different speed.
(c) Rybar
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
The attack on the Izyum direction..
1. Yampol is being cleared or has already been cleared.
2. Up to 1000 Vushnikov are pressed to the river near Oskol.
3. Fighting on the outskirts of the Red Estuary.
4. Between Krasny Liman and Slavyansk yesterday the Armed Forces of Ukraine blew up the railway bridge.
5. Fighting continues in the area of the village of Pashkovo south of Kurulka, a few kilometers from the Barvenkovo-Slavyansk highway.
6. Also ongoing fighting for Orekhovo west of Novotoshkovsky.
Both sides note heavy losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the fire impact of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.