The advances of Russia, which in January captured less territory than in each of the previous months of the last half year, have slowed down a little due to the hard resistance of Ukraine, although the pressure remains high along the front line . Taking the entire Donetsk region is still one of Russia’s priorities.
Almost half of their assaults in January occurred near Pokrovsk, a city of about 60,000 inhabitants before the invasion and its key objective after taking the small cities of Kurájove and Velika Novosilka.
Instead of attacking the city in front, Russia focuses on cutting its main logistics artery from the west, whereby they arrive at Pokrovsk weapons, ammunition and other supplies from the nearby Dnipropetrovsk region.
The second key logistics route, between Pokrovsk and Kostiantinivka, in the east, also faces heated attacks of Russian troops near Vozdvizhenka. Deepstate indicates that Russian forces have achieved “partial success” in Kotline, although the arrival of Ukrainian reserves has stopped its progress in some areas.
According to the latest analysis of Oleksandr Kovalenko for the information resistance group, the Ukrainian forces have been launching counterattacks in the area, as well as in the vicinity of Kurájove, and have managed to slow the Russian progress.
The defensive operation of the Ukrainian forces seeks to maximize the losses of the enemy, according to Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Army, Oleksandr Sirski. Only in January, Ukrainian soldiers “neutralized” more than 15,000 invaders near Pokrovsk, killing 7,000 of them, SIRSKI revealed on Sunday.
