On the ground, a Ukrainian military official said advancing Russian forces came close to encircling Ukrainian forces in the east, briefly capturing positions on the last highway out of two important Ukrainian-controlled cities before being pushed back.
Hit-and-run, continuous bombing and Russian movements from three sides in an attempt to encircle the Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk and Lychansk, so what is happening on the ground during the current hours?
Escalation of military action
Russian forces intensified their military operations in the past hours, after they made gains in Donbass following the surrender of Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol last week.
In the context of the military battles, Alexander Artamatov, a military analyst and former general in the Russian army, says that the Russian army’s current movements on 3 sides around Severodonetsk and Lyschansk aim at the fall of the Lugansk region in the entire Donbass region and the settlement of the military battle.
The military expert explained, during his statements to “Sky News Arabia”, that the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysechansk, which are separated by a river, constitute the last pockets of Ukrainian resistance that have already been penetrated.
Battles are also taking place for the control of the city of Liman, whose capture will constitute an important progress in attempts to encircle, unlike the battles in the vicinity of the cities of Bubasna and Bakhmut, whose fall will lead to the Russian forces’ control of an important road axis.
Alexander Artamatov believes that the battle of the two cities is a strategic point in the military operation after Russia redefined its main goal, which is to control the east, in addition to the Russian forces also retaining during the past days the control of a large sector of land along the border, through which the Ukrainian forces prevented from cutting Russian supply lines running from the east of the city to the Donbass.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces destroyed workshops at the “Motor Sitch” plant in Zaporozhye, which were producing engines for Ukrainian Air Force aircraft, in a major blow to Ukraine within days.
In the context of field developments, Denis Pushilin, President of the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic, said that his country’s forces entered the Kherson, Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions in Ukraine, noting the impossibility of protecting Donbass only by reaching the borders of the two republics.
Pushilin added: “Our units are present in a number of regions .. I am talking about the Kherson region, the Zaporizhia region and the Kharkiv region.”
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov also called on the Ukrainian forces in the cities of Severodonetsk and Lesichansk a few days ago to lay down their arms, saying through his account on “Telegram”: “I request all those who are resisting in Severodonetsk and Lesichansk, and in the vicinity of these two cities, to reconsider their accounts and lay down their arms before they are crowded.” in the corner”.
With the military operation entering its fourth month, Russia has abandoned its assault on the capital, Kyiv, and is trying to extend its control over the Donbass industrial region in eastern Ukraine, where it has supported a separatist insurgency since 2014.
Ukrainian distress
“Where’s the weapon?” This was the Ukrainian distress during the past hours, as the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zalogny, demanded on the Telegram application more Western weapons, especially “weapons that will allow to strike the enemy from a distance”; That, he said.
The Ukrainian armed forces said that more than 40 towns in the area were bombed, destroying or damaging 47 civilian sites, including 38 homes and one school.
And last Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stressed, at the Davos forum, that his country urgently needs mobile rocket launchers that provide it with a firepower equivalent to that of Russia.
“The battle of Donbass is very similar to the battles of World War II,” Kuleba said at the World Economic Forum held in Switzerland.
On the other hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later warned that any arms supplies that could reach Russian territory would be a “dangerous step towards an unacceptable escalation.”
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