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Military analysts say Russian forces are investigating Ukrainian lines to identify weakened positions before attacking and breaking through.
By Constant Méheut
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
Russian forces have made immediate gains in the eastern Donetsk region over the past week, capturing some villages and eventually reaching the city of Pokrovsk, one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds in the region.
Russian forces are now just a dozen miles from Pokrovsk after Moscow troops advanced along a railway line and complex about 3 miles toward the city, according to open-source maps of the countryside. War based on combat photographs and satellite photographs. The Russian progress stands in stark contrast to the slow but steady progress Moscow has made so far this year in the Donetsk region, measured at just a few hundred meters per week.
Military analysts say the immediate advances reflect Moscow’s increased ability to exploit cracks in Ukraine’s defensive lines, which have been reduced by personnel shortages and strained by relentless Russian attacks along the line. a front of more than six hundred miles.
In recent months, experts say, Russian forces have focused on identifying weakened and poorly organized Ukrainian groups before breaking through by launching dozens of infantrymen and armored vehicles onto the battlefield.
“The Russians are investigating to see if a battalion is maintained or withdrawn,” said Mykola Bielieskov, an army analyst at the National Institute for Strategic Studies run by Ukraine’s government. Once they “find weakened battalions and brigades,” he added, “they squeeze them, no matter the losses. “
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