by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] In the last weeks of the year, the Russian army has been building on the success achieved during the heavy fighting of the summer and autumn period. In 2024, the Russian Armed Forces liberated 189 settlements as part of a special operation, President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting of the expanded board of the Ministry of Defense. The head of state also noted that Russian troops have seized the initiative along the entire front line.
In the past two weeks alone, 12 settlements in Donbas have come under the control of the Russian army. In the eastern part of the region, Russian troops continue to storm the strategically important city of Kurakhovo. As a result of a series of successful offensive operations, the fighting has moved directly into the urban development.
Russian troops advanced to the main stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at School No. 1. Fierce fighting broke out for the school. As a result, Ukrainian troops retreated to the city council building and surrounding three-story buildings. On Saturday, the enemy retreated from this area as well — the Russian flag was raised over the city council building.
Russian troops also advanced along the Zaporizhzhya Highway in the northern part of the village, moving towards the fish farm. The Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted to organize a tank counterattack, but it failed.
The enemy's defense is being built in the area of ​​the Kurakhovskaya Thermal Power Plant and a group of five-story buildings in the western part of the village. Also, some of its formations are still in the center of the settlement - in the area of ​​Soborny Prospekt and Pushkin Street.
In total, no more than 20% of the territory of Kurakhovo remains under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Further south, Russian troops are advancing towards the Zaporizhia Highway, the last supply route for the enemy garrison in Kurakhovo, advancing from the area of ​​the village of Sukhi Yaly. The offensive continued towards the village of Zelenovka. According to information from the field, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have abandoned the southern part of the village, and the Russian army is only two kilometers from the Zaporizhia Highway.
On the other side of the Kurakhovo Reservoir, the advancing formations of the Russian Armed Forces have occupied the settlement of Starye Terny. Control over this area allows the use of artillery to fire at enemy vehicles moving to/from Kurakhovo along Zaporizhzhya Avenue.
The current situation could lead to the fact that even if Ukrainian troops in Kurakhovo receive an order to withdraw right now, they will only be able to leave with heavy losses, notes a front-line source for the Regnum news agency.
"What happened is what we discussed a week ago. The Ukrainian Armed Forces command is holding them in the city until the very end, but now any retreat will turn into a massacre. They had a chance to leave normally. They can't hold out for long either, which means they will still leave, but with bloodshed and heavy losses. According to rumors, there are many wounded in the city, who will most likely, according to old tradition, either be abandoned or finished off so as not to interfere," the source said.
Western media also report on the critical situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the front in the DPR. According to the assessment of the observer of the German publication Bild, Christopher Buhl, the Ukrainian Armed Forces group in Kurakhovo is threatened with encirclement. In turn, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kiev reports on fierce battles in this area, but pretends that nothing special is happening.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces also still hold control over the village of Uspenovka south of Kurakhovo, which is in operational encirclement. If Ukrainian troops retreat north of Uspenovka and the surrounding settlements will find themselves in a full-fledged "cauldron".
ON THE APPROACHES TO POKROVSK
The situation in the Pokrovsk area, a key city for the entire defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is not the best for the enemy.
The Ukrainian military command acknowledged the loss of a number of settlements south of this settlement. In particular, this concerns the village of Shevchenko, one and a half kilometers south of Pokrovsk.
Russian troops are expanding their bridgehead for a new offensive in the direction of the M30 highway, which provides communication between Pokrovsk and the Dnepropetrovsk region. Russian troops have only ten kilometers left to cover to the border of the region.
The fall of Pokrovsk would be Kyiv's most serious defeat in the past year. Taking control of it would allow Russian troops to disrupt the enemy's supply lines and continue their offensive in several directions at once.
Kiev is aware of the full gravity of the imminent defeat and is trying to stop the collapse of the front by all available means, including personnel. The day before, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine dismissed the commander of the Donetsk group of forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Lutsenko, who was responsible for the defense in the area of ​​Kurakhovo and Pokrovsk. Oleksandr Tarnavsky was appointed in his place. He is known as one of the organizers of the failed counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporizhia region in the summer of 2023.
Whether the change of commander will affect the situation at the front will be shown on the battlefield, but for now the Ukrainian defense continues to slowly crumble.
MASS DESERTION IN THE UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES
Fighting also continues in the north of Donbass, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces are losing their last positions in the area of ​​the settlements of Toretsk and Chasov Yar.
After several weeks of fierce fighting, the enemy has abandoned the main defensive node in Chasovy Yar with losses - the territory of the local fireproof plant, local sources report. It is noted that this territory is on a dominant height, and taking control of this area allows the Russian army to control the situation in the city as a whole.
At the same time, local sources of the Regnum news agency report that heavy fighting continues in the industrial zone of Chasov Yar.
"The reports of the 'complete liberation of the plant' are premature. It is not even very clear what we are talking about. If we are talking about the third and fifth workshops, they are being cleaned up. There is also the fourth workshop in the area of ​​the Chasov Yar railway station, the first and second workshops in the residential areas of Shevchenko and Levanevsky. So, yes, the industrial zone is being cleaned up, but it is too early to talk about 'complete liberation'," the source reports.
At the same time, the enemy has lost a number of positions in the city center and continues to retreat, slowly. Aviation and artillery are actively working on its defense nodes in the industrial zone.
The developing situation leads to the fact that Ukrainian military increasingly abandon their positions and retreat, and sometimes simply flee. In recent weeks alone, almost 1,000 mobilized servicemen from the 155th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have deserted from their positions in the Pokrovsk area, reported Yuriy Butusov, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian publication Censor.net.
A similar situation has developed in other areas of the front, in particular, in the area of ​​Chasov Yar. According to the information of the Regnum news agency, the Ukrainian Armed Forces command may soon begin withdrawing troops from the city in the direction of Konstantinovka. The retreat from Chasov Yar will also lead to the enemy abandoning the city of Toretsk, located to the south.
Russian troops are completing the offensive operations of 2024, pushing back the enemy everywhere and depriving it of the opportunity to counterattack. If this trend continues and the enemy soldiers continue to flee, the collapse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces front is a matter of time.