Text taken from the V Kontakte post from Reports from the Novorossiya militia
[VK] 30.08.24. Analysis from the channel "Military Chronicle".
🔺. The last few days have been actively discussed "too fast" advance of Russian troops in the Pokrovsk direction. Is it dangerous in the current conditions?
▪Why are the troops moving so fast?
After taking a chain of settlements behind Avdiivka (Ocheretino, Progress, Volchye), the speed of advance of Russian troops increased significantly. This happened largely because the group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this direction suffered heavy losses in the battle for Avdiivka and continued to suffer these losses further. In addition, these were large one-time losses of units that were familiar with the section of the front. And they tried to hastily replace them with units like the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 115th Brigade, unfamiliar with the area. In the end, everyone rolled back. At the same time, the advance of the Russian Armed Forces is not hundreds of kilometers or even tens.
▪Why do the Ukrainian Armed Forces hold some sections of the front and surrender others?
In Toretsk, which is cited as an example of "serious defense", a network of fortifications was built, while the Ukrainian Armed Forces occupy a significant part of the urban development. There is no such defensive line beyond Ocheretin, anddifficulties arise with the transfer of reinforcements (which are flying both in advance and at the deployment stage). It is difficult and complicated to pick out infantry from urban development, so the Kanal microdistrict in Chasovy Yar has been practically wiped into dust by artillery, and approximately the same thing is happening in Toretsk. The Ukrainian Armed Forces did not have time to strengthen their positions behind Ocheretin, so they preferred to retreat. This also explains the rapid entry of the Russian army through Novogrodovka.
▪Can the Ukrainian Armed Forces strike from the north and cut off the Pokrovsk grouping of the Russian Armed Forces?
For this to be possible, reserves (preferably in the amount of several brigades) must appear quickly and deploy almost simultaneously where everything has been zeroed in by Russian artillery since 2022 - in the area of Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka, which are subject to missile strikes almost every day. At the same time, many "worried" about the progress of the Russian Armed Forces do not take into account another circumstance. Even if the reserves are collected, to strike from the north against the advancing units of the Russian Armed Forces they will have to move along the front line, which is within reach of the entire spectrum of heavy weapons.
At the same time, a counterattack against an attacking group covered by artillery and aviation, even at first glance, looks like a “meat assault” on a large scale.
However, this point of view (as well as a detailed study of the operational situation) is not being considered by those “worried” about the rapid breakthrough of the Russian Armed Forces to Pokrovsk. And why is a big question.
What else is important to understand about the Pokrovsk operation?
So far, the Russian army has gained good momentum and is moving, in general, without significant interference (that is, with battles, but without critical hitches). But judging by the intensity of the battles and the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this area as a whole, it seems that the plan of the Ukrainian army probably involves a retreat from secondary cities in favor of the main fortified areas - Mirnograd and Pokrovsk.
It is quite possible that there was no need to build an analogue of the Surovikin Line there: the development in these cities itself is not very dense, but not the lowest, and if necessary it is indeed possible to dig in there. The only question is for how long.
If these guesses are correct, then the collapse of the defense, which is recorded by numerous analysts, may be temporary, and the main defensive lines are being prepared in the cities themselves, following the example of Avdeevka/Artemovsk, only without concrete bunkers and other capital structures, the construction of which would take from several weeks to several months."
Related from Russkaya Vesna
The West reports on the situation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have not been able to achieve significant progress since the attack on the Kursk region, German journalist Julian Repke said on the social network H.
“Three weeks after the start of the Ukrainian offensive operation in the Kursk region, we returned to where we were on August 5,” he wrote.
Repke added that he could not find any good news about the Ukrainian Armed Forces' successes in the area.