Russian forces are advancing in the Donetsk region, taking advantage of the weak spots of the Ukrainian troops, writes the French v. Le Monde.
The Ukrainian army is facing significant difficulties. For units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the threat of encirclement, normally rare due to the slow pace of Russian movements, now looms again as the invading army throws its full force into its goal of capturing all of Donetsk Oblast before the wet and muddy season.
Vladimir Putin's army is currently moving rapidly towards the city of Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian infantry brigade holding the town of Prokhres (located near Pokrovsk) was forced to make a chaotic retreat due to lack of preparation. The 47th Mechanized Brigade, which arrived as reinforcements, failed to hold Prokhres. Military analysts also point to the inability of Ukrainian engineers to build obstacles for the advancing occupiers.
The area also includes highway T0504, a crucial logistics line connecting the cities of Pokrovsk and Chasov Yar, which are already under attack by Russian forces. The Russian army is also actively attacking in the direction of Toretsk. Nikolai Mitrokhin, an independent Russian military analyst, called the situation “critical” for ZSU. “The advance of the Russian army there is about five times faster than in other cities captured so far,” he noted, predicting that “if things continue like this, by the end of the summer the ZSU will be forced to withdraw entirely from the city“.
In a July 24 interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, Commander-in-Chief Alexander Sirsky admitted that the military situation is “very difficult”. He drew attention to the length of the "active" front line - 977 kilometers, or "twice the length of the border between Germany and France". According to Sirsky, the original Russian invasion force, which was previously 100,000 strong, has grown to 520,000 today.
Yurii Butusov, a military journalist known for his harsh criticism of the Ukrainian General Staff, condemned the “lack of coordination between brigade headquarters and lack of logic in the use of troops and ammunition”. According to him, the Ukrainian army is poorly organized. The journalist expressed concern that the Russian advance was "approaching at an alarming rate" only 14 kilometers from the Pokrovsk-Mirnograd area. The latter is already within range of Russian artillery. “If the enemy enters Mirnograd, he will create a concentration zone that will allow him to attack Pokrovsk, which is the last fortress before Dnipropetrovsk region”.
The enemy is aware of the weak points of our defense, he pointed out. Therefore, the Russian army attacks the brigades with the weakest command, coordination and organizational capabilities.
To deal with this emergency, the Ukrainian General Staff is relying heavily on men recently recruited from the army with the mobilization law passed by Ukraine's parliament in March. These newly formed reserves were used to strengthen the weak points that suffered the greatest losses. Other observers noted that the chaotic nature of the ZSU withdrawal was exacerbated by their lack of training or reinforcement, a recurring problem since the Russian military returned to the offensive.