Lugansk and Donetsk units are approaching the main stronghold of the Donetsk Armed Forces group
Units of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics are preparing to encircle the main Ukrainian forces and are advancing towards the cities of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. According to experts, the future of Ukrainian formations in the Donbass in this situation looks very unenviable. The DPR forces are advancing from the south, and the LPR - from the northeast. Clashes between the DPR units and the Azov regiment militants continue in the city limits of the surrounded Mariupol. As of March 8, the People's Republics already control most of their territory. Meanwhile, the Russian military continues to organize the evacuation of besieged Ukrainian cities. Since the beginning of the special operation, 174 thousand people have been taken out of dangerous areas.
The course to Slavyansk
On Tuesday, the troops of the People's Republics of Donbass and Russia continued their offensive. The Russian armed forces took control of the settlements of Vanguard and Quarry. The LNR group took control of the settlements of Pudovka and Nizhne during the same day, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said. It is worth noting that Pudovka is located just a few kilometers north of the city of Severodonetsk, which remains one of the last defense nodes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the entire Donbass.
The head of the LPR Leonid Pasechnik announced on March 8 that the units of the republic entered the city of Popasnaya — it is located about 60 km northwest of Lugansk and 30 km northeast of Gorlovka. According to the head of the republic, mine clearance and other work related to emergency services are currently being carried out in the city.
The day before, the head of the LPR reported that most of the republic had been taken under control, and its troops were encircling the remaining Ukrainian fortified areas in a number of settlements — heavy fighting was going on in the cities of Lisichansk, Popasnaya, Severodonetsk and Rubezhnoye.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
Image source: iz.ru
The DPR People's Militia units established control over the settlements of Olenovka, Polnoye and Yuzhnodonbasskoye by March 8. They are moving north in the direction of Krasnoarmeysk and Avdiivka, which open access to the stronghold of the Donbass group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. Earlier, Izvestia reported that the units of the republics came to these two cities from other directions. Slavyansk and Kramatorsk are cities that were the center of the Donbass resistance for a long time in 2014. Today in Kramatorsk is the headquarters of the OOS of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
- The defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is noticeably weakening even in the most responsible areas, where they have been strengthening for years— - military expert Dmitry Boltenkov told Izvestia. - For yesterday and today, we managed to achieve serious successes. In the DPR, the front was moved from Donetsk to Kurakhino. In the LPR, the city of Popasnaya was occupied. There, a southern "claw" is being formed to encircle the grouping in Severodonetsk and Lisichansk. The other will be surrounded in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. This is a classic tactic. One large cauldron will be cut into several small ones and beaten in turn. The Ukrainian forces near Donetsk and Lugansk can no longer counterattack, but they are afraid to retreat, because their columns will immediately be hunted by aviation. But they won't be able to sit on the defensive there forever. Both equipment and ammunition will run out. So the fate of this group looks unenviable.
But it is difficult now and coming. The spring turned out to be not cold in the south, and the chernozems have not had time to dry out yet, the expert noted.
Fighting continues in the encircled Mariupol, where the militants of the Azov regiment are located. By March 8, the DPR troops had established control over the Osoaviakhim district. In the morning, the city was among those where a regime of silence was declared and corridors for refugees to exit were opened. After the time for evacuation had passed, the DPR units advanced another kilometer or so, the Russian military department said.
According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, during the day, bomber and assault aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed 32 military facilities, including four control points, three radar stations, two fuel depots and 23 areas of concentration of weapons and military equipment.
Deserted corridors
On Tuesday, March 8, the Russian armed forces again stopped firing in a number of directions, prepared and offered the Ukrainian side to open 10 humanitarian corridors from Kiev, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol. Two routes were proposed from each city — one in the direction of Russia, another through the territories controlled by the Kiev authorities to Poland, Moldova and Romania. Official Kiev has confirmed only one - from the city of Sumy through Poltava to the border with Poland, said the head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev.
According to the only working route from Sumy to Poltava, 723 people were evacuated. Of these, 576 are citizens of India, 115 of China, 20 of Jordan and 12 of Tunisia, the Colonel-General noted.
- The militants of the territorial defense battalions continue to hold hostage as a "human shield" more than 4.5 million civilians, as well as about 2 thousand foreigners who have already expressed a desire to evacuate to safe places from the horrors and arbitrariness staged by the nationalists— - he said.
Russia, without Kiev's participation, evacuated 5,334 civilians, 781 of whom were children, from dangerous zones in various regions of Ukraine, as well as the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics during the day. In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, more than 174 thousand people have already been evacuated, including 44,250 children, the Colonel-General said. According to him, without the participation of Kiev, the humanitarian operation to evacuate foreigners from dangerous areas of the Kherson region is also being completed.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Alexander Polegenko
Image source: iz.ru
Gumkoridors did not work on the territory of the DPR either.
— We have opened humanitarian corridors from Mariupol and Volnovakha, at the moment no one has left. The nationalists who control Mariupol in full, and Volnovakha in part, prevent the civilian population from leaving the horror in which they have been living for the last week—" said Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the DPR People's Militia Department, on March 8.
According to him, Ukrainian nationalists do not allow residents of Kramatorsk, Dzerzhinsk and Ugledar to leave the war zone. They put schools, kindergartens, hospitals at risk by equipping barracks and firing points there, Basurin said.
Representatives of the Kiev authorities and mayors of cities received instructions to prevent the evacuation of people to Russia, Mikhail Mizintsev noted.
— I would like to remind the Ukrainian side that in our database, taking into account the past days, 2 million 541 thousand 367 appeals have already been documented through various communication channels from specific citizens of Ukraine, as well as foreigners with requests to rescue and evacuate them from 1917 settlements of Ukraine, - said the general.
He also drew attention to the fact that the database contains the names, surnames and addresses of people, audio and video recordings of their panic state, stories about the difficult humanitarian situation, about murders, physical violence, searches and illegal arrests carried out by nationalists. For fear of reprisals against people, the Russian Federation cannot yet transfer this information to Ukraine.
Checkpoints on the territory of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and Romania were not ready to receive evacuees from Ukraine. For unhindered border crossing, Ukrainian border guards demand a bribe of $ 1.5–5 thousand. The queues stretched to 40 km, and the passage time exceeds two days, the Colonel-General also noted.
The Russian Defense Ministry is now conducting a large-scale humanitarian operation. 946 tons of humanitarian cargo have been delivered to Ukraine - first of all, these are basic necessities, medicines and food. 132 actions were held in the settlements of the Zaporozhye, Kiev, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv regions, as well as in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, where humanitarian aid was distributed to civilians. In addition, there are more than 9 thousand temporary accommodation facilities in Russia.
Roman Kretsul