Russians are planning several boilers
US experts see Russian strategy change in Donbass
05/25/2022, 7:20 p.m
With a large pincer attack, the Kremlin wanted to conquer the Donbass. But the big breakthrough did not materialize. Now the Russian military seems to be pursuing a new plan. According to military experts, Moscow is trying to form several smaller cauldrons.
In mid-April, Russian forces launched the second phase of their invasion in eastern Ukraine. Starting from the city of Izyum in the Kharkiv region, associations of Moscow tried with a big pincer attack push south to link up with friendly units at Debaltsveve in the Donetsk region. This maneuver was intended to cut off numerous Ukrainian troops in the salient to the east and force them to surrender. But the continued resistance and Ukrainian land gains in the Kharkiv area hindered the operation.
Now the Kremlin seems to have changed its plans. To the US Institute for War Research (ISW) According to Moscow’s troops are now trying to simultaneously encircle several small Ukrainian formations in the Luhansk region in order to gradually gain territory. Accordingly, Russian units are trying to form boilers at Bakhmut, Zolote, Sievjerodonetsk and Avdiivka. The reserves of man and material needed for the attacks would be withdrawn from the areas around Kharkiv, Izyum, Donetsk and Zaporizhia, it said.
Moscow’s military seems to be having more success with the simultaneous attacks at different points on the front. Recently, Ukrainian units are said to have withdrawn southwest of Popasna to protect their lines of communication. In the past week, Russian troops in the Luhansk region have gained more territory than in the whole of May, ISW analysts said. However, they failed to make a decisive breakthrough.
In the Russian focus is Bachmut in particular. The city of 70,000 in the Donetsk region is an important transport hub that currently also serves as an improvised command center for the Ukrainian army. From Bakhmut roads lead to all sections of the front. Should the place fall, the supply line to Lysychansk and Sievjerodonetsk to the north-east would also be cut off. The two industrial cities have a high symbolic importance for both Kyiv and Moscow. They are the last cities in the Luhansk region still held by Ukraine.
According to estimates by British secret services, however, the conquest of Lysychansk and Sievjerodonetsk will pose new challenges for Russian troops. Because the shift of the front to the west would aggravate the existing logistical problems, said the Ministry of Defense in London.