Today marks exactly 3 months since the start of the ‘Special military operation’. I will speak in detail about its ‘intermediate results’ this evening. But for now - news from the frontline:
After the failure to encircle the whole Donetsk group, the Russian forces command together with LDPR armed forces (which are of course united) made a forced decision to ‘push’ the enemy out of Donbas. The main efforts have been shifted from Sloviansk-Barvenkovo direction to Krasnyi Lyman and Severodonetsk-Lisichansk, and also the ‘Svetlodar bulge’ and Avdeevka. Thanks to the fact that units of RF AF, LDPR AF and Wagner Group managed to earlier break through the frontline at Popasna and capture the town - the offensive is developing slowly yet relatively successfully. By the looks of it, Ukrainian command after all began withdrawing troops from the ‘bags’ formed in Lyman and Severodonetsk-Lisichansk.
In particular, the enemy is abandoning their heavily fortified outpost in Zolotoye-Orekhovo area (south-east of Lisichansk) that ended up in an operational encirclement, and gradually (with battles) is withdrawing from Severodonetsk, abandoning (or already abandoned) Svetlodarsk. Ukrainian forces are also withdrawing (with rearguard battles) from Lyman area.
As it appears, the main line of defence of UAF has been moved to Seversk - Bahmut (Artemovsk) line. Soledar and the resulting bulge will be soon evacuated. At the same time, the enemy continues hanging on to all mentioned localities with forces of the units that are located on the first line, and just stopped throwing new reserves at them to save them for future battles, avoiding exposing them to concentrated Russian artillery and aviation strikes in the ‘bags’.
Also - according to reports from the field, enemy’s resistance notably weakened in the area north of Avdeevka. Yesterday, units of DPR AF reached the northern outskirts of Avdeevka, reaching the railway line on the ouskirts of the town, but have not yet entered housing areas. The enemy stopped stubbornly fighting for every position even though their artillery continues with massive and accurate shelling.
- translation @mdmitri91