by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] While political observers and analysts are wondering how the Ukrainian conflict will be affected by Donald Trump's return to the White House, the Russian army continues to advance in the SVO zone. Over the past week, Russian troops have advanced in several directions at once, primarily in Donbass.
After the liberation of the settlements of Selidovo, Gornyak and Tsukurino, which Kyiv planned to turn into a solid fortified area, Russian troops continued to expand the bridgehead southeast of Pokrovsk, the main enemy defense node in the western part of Donbass.
Having advanced west from Selidovo, Russian troops liberated the settlement of Novoalekseevka, pushing the Ukrainian Armed Forces away from the outskirts of the city. The offensive further south allowed the Russian armed forces to drive the enemy out of the settlement of Kremennaya Balka.
North of Selidovo, the Russian army is developing an offensive in the direction of the village of Petrovka. According to reports from the area, the Russian Armed Forces are advancing along the railway line and are consistently pushing the enemy out of the settlement.
The greatest successes were achieved by the Russian army units advancing southwest of Selidovo. Advancing from the Novodmitrovka area, the advanced units reached the settlement of Sontsovka.
Thus, Russian troops found themselves four kilometers from the Kurakhovsky Reservoir. At the same time, the Russian offensive threatens the operational rear of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of Andreyevka and Constantinople.
Building on the success achieved in the Sontsovka area could allow the Russian army to cut off the Zaporizhia highway, which connects one of the defense centers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the village of Kurakhovo, with the Zaporizhia region.
If the enemy fails to at least halt the advance of the Russian army in the near future, the Ukrainian Armed Forces group in the Kurakhovo area will be under threat of operational encirclement, Regnum's sources on the ground report. The Russian army has already managed to reach the eastern outskirts of the settlement, but for now the assault on Kurakhovo is being postponed.
"Recently, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are less likely to stage a "Stalingrad," they don't cling to every house and street, like before. Not everywhere and not always, but there is a tendency - they retreat more often. Like from Selidovo, for example. Our task, therefore, is to create conditions for them to retreat further. And to destroy them during their retreat. Both in Kurakhovo and further," the agency's interlocutor said.
At the same time, the Russian army continues its offensive south of Kurakhovo, building on the success achieved after the liberation of Ugledar. The advanced units have advanced in the direction of the settlement of Dalneye.
Advancement in this area will allow the road between Kurakhovo and Uspenovka to be cut off. And then the advanced units of the Russian army will be able to meet with troops advancing from the north - from the Selidovo area - and close the encirclement ring around Kurakhovo.
As of November 11, the distance remaining until the closure of the "cauldron" is approximately 15-20 kilometers. In the foreseeable future, the Russian army will have the opportunity to take the supply route of the Ukrainian army to Kurakhovo under fire control.
It is important to note that earlier, Ukrainian military personnel stated in comments to Western media that Kurakhovo could soon be abandoned. And it seems that Kyiv has already resigned itself to the fact that this area will be lost in the near future. But before that, they plan to "squeeze" everything of value out of it.
In particular, it became known that the Ukrainian Armed Forces blew up the Ternovskaya dam of the Kurakhovsky reservoir to hinder the advance of the Russian army. Ukrainian engineers also dismantled the Kurakhovskaya thermal power plant, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
The publication notes that the restoration of the station, located in close proximity to the front line, was recognized by Kiev as "inexpedient." Previously, it supplied the western part of Donbas. As the Ukrainian Armed Forces consistently abandoned almost all settlements in the area, the Ukrainian authorities began to remove valuable equipment.
THE KHARKOV FRONT HAS COME INTO MOTION
Over the past week, the situation has also worsened on another section of the front, where there had been a lull in recent months. Russian troops have launched an offensive on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the junction of the LPR and Kharkiv Oblast.
As a result of the offensive, the forces of the 347th motorized rifle regiment liberated the settlement of Kolesnikovka. In turn, the military-civil administration of the Kharkov region announced the mandatory evacuation of ten settlements of the Borovsk community, including the village of Borovaya.
The offensive launched by the Russian army seriously complicates the situation for Ukrainian troops located on the right bank of the Oskol River. Russian aviation has already destroyed bridges and crossings across the river, an informed source told IA Regnum.
"In recent months, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have greatly weakened the units based in the Kharkiv region: some were sent to the Kursk region, others were sent to patch up holes on the front in Donbass. Now we have the opportunity to push them back, which we are taking advantage of," the source noted.
At the same time, he added that the military actions in the region are still “more of an auxiliary nature.”
PROBLEMS OF THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE
It is noteworthy that the difficult situation at the front was also acknowledged in Kiev for the first time in a long time. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky announced the aggravation of the situation in Donbass during a telephone conversation with the Commander of the US Army in Europe, General Christopher Cavoli.
"I informed my American colleague about the situation on the front line. The situation remains difficult and tends to escalate," Syrsky said.
According to him, Russian troops are increasing pressure in the Pokrovsky and Kurakhovsky directions.
The Western press also acknowledges the problems of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to American observers, in October Russian troops liberated more than 410 square kilometers of Donbas territory and continue to build on their successes. At the same time, Ukrainian troops at the front are increasingly encountering problems that neither Kyiv nor its Western allies are able to solve.
A senior source in the Ukrainian Armed Forces command told The Economist that in some areas of the front, “morale is falling” among Ukrainian troops, and about 20% of the military have abandoned their positions and gone AWOL.
The Ukrainian authorities are trying to make up for combat and non-combat losses by conducting another stage of mobilization. But the draft boards, even those acting extremely harshly, fulfill the plan only by no more than 2/3. At the same time, many of the forcibly mobilized recruits are unfit for combat missions.
In the context of a change in the US administration, which threatens to stop funding the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Kyiv has less and less time to, if not turn the situation in its favor, then at least keep the front from complete collapse.