BUSINESS INSIDER | Published November 5, 2024
- Ukraine is facing a grim outlook along sectors of the front, especially in the east.
- Kyiv’s struggling with manpower and equipment shortages, among other challenges.
- Russia is suffering staggering losses, but it’s been able to maintain its recent momentum.
Russia’s grinding offensive operations have been gaining momentum in eastern Ukraine as challenges for the defenders mount. At the moment, Ukrainian forces in the east have a problem.
Over the weekend, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said his soldiers were facing one of Russia’s “most powerful” offensives since the start of war in February 2022 along various sectors of the front line.
Ukraine’s shocking invasion of Russia’s Kursk region briefly took the focus off the fighting in the Donbas, but now Ukraine is losing ground both inside Russia and at home.
In the Donbas, Ukrainian troops are falling back from defensive positions in towns throughout the Donetsk area. Last month, Russia made its most territorial gains in a single month since the summer of 2022, more than 150 square miles. Its costly attacks appear to be achieving some success.
Russia’s advances raise concerns that it could capture Pokrovsk, which serves as an important center for Ukrainian military logistics and operations in the Donbas, where the fighting in Ukraine first began a decade ago.
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SOURCE: www.businessinsider.com
RELATED:: A Powerful Russian Division Is Grinding Away At Ukrainian Paratroopers In Illinka—And Losing Staggering Numbers Of Vehicles
A Russian vehicle burns outside Ilinka.Kriegsforscher photo
FORBES | Published November 4, 2024
But the Ukrainians are stretched thin, and the Russians are willing to trade losses for land.
Advancing north from the ruins of Vuhledar, the powerful Russian 20th Motor Rifle Division—with perhaps 10,000 troops—is hammering at the 2,000-person Ukrainian 79th Air Assault Brigade, counting on the division’s superior numbers to grind down the exhausted paratroopers.
The Russians’ goal: to drive the Ukrainian brigade from the village of Illinka, 20 miles west of Donetsk in the oblast of the same name. If Illinka and surrounding settlements fall, Russian troops could drive north—and surround the Ukrainian garrison in Karakhove, a key position for the Ukrainians’ defense of southern Donetsk Oblast.
“The situation is close to critical,” reported Kriegsforscher, a Ukrainian drone operator. The 79th Air Assault Brigade “is under [a] massive enemy push” that began around two weeks ago.
The paratroopers and their supporting drone units have knocked out potentially dozens of Russian vehicles—first, factory-fresh BMP-3s. And then, as the modern BMP-3s began to run out, older BMP-2s and MT-LBs.
The vehicular massacre on the road toward Illinka has helped drive up Russian losses to record levels. Analyst Andrew Perpetua tallied a staggering 206 destroyed, damaged and abandoned Russian vehicles on Saturday. He counted just 49 Ukrainian losses on the same day.
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SOURCE: www.forbes.com
RELATED: Ukraine facing ‘one of the most powerful’ Russian offensives of the war, commander warns, as Moscow claims gains in east
The city of Toretsk, eastern Ukraine. The region has been facing a renewed Russian assault.
CNN | Published November 3, 2024
Ukraine’s army chief has warned that his forces are facing “one of the most powerful Russian offensives” since the start of the war as Russia claimed it captured more settlements on the eastern frontline.
Russia has steadily been making gains in the eastern Donbas region, which Russia’s President Vladimir Putin aims to capture in full. Reuters, citing open source data, reported that Russia has been advancing at its fastest pace in at least a year.
Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said the situation on the front line “remains difficult” and certain areas “require constant renewal of resources of Ukrainian units” in a statement on Telegram Saturday morning.
Kyiv’s forces, he said, are “holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.”
Over the weekend, Russia claimed the capture of two settlements in the Donetsk region – Kurakhivka and Vyshneve. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed either claim.
Vyshneve is close to Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in the east and a major target of the Russian offensive.
Meanwhile Russian drone attacks continue, with Ukraine bracing for what could be a difficult winter with energy infrastructure already badly hit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched over 50 drone attacks at Ukraine overnight into Sunday. Over the past week, Russia has dropped more than 900 bombs on Ukraine, and launched about 30 missiles and nearly 500 Shahed drones in various regions of Ukraine, he added.
Most of the strikes were directed against civilian objects and critical infrastructure, the statement said.
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SOURCE: www.cnn.com
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