"This is their last frontier." What started in the north of Donbass

MOSCOW, June 23 — RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz.The operation to liberate the former Luhansk region of Ukraine is entering its final stage. Most of the settlements are already under the control of the LPR. Allied troops are advancing to the west and have almost completely occupied Severodonetsk. They surround neighboring Lisichansk. Several boilers have formed in the vicinity of the city. About the situation at the front — in the material of RIA Novosti.

Operational environment

Lisichansk is a difficult target for a frontal assault. The city is located on a hill, the building is dense. In addition, there are many industrial zones that are convenient for long-term defense. Five coal mines, a dozen large factories — from the machine-building to the factory of technical fabrics. According to the latest data, there are from five to seven thousand people in the AFU group stationed here.

There is, in fact, nowhere to retreat. As the LNR Ambassador to Russia Rodion Miroshnik reported on Thursday, the Republican army cut the Artemovsk— Seversk — Lisichansk highway. This is one of the two ways in which the AFU transferred reinforcements, food and ammunition. The second highway — from Artemovsk via Soledar — was taken under control even earlier. The situation of the Ukrainian group has turned from difficult to critical.

"They are trapped, their defeat is only a matter of time," says an officer of the LNR army with the call sign Fierce. — According to our information, in addition to the Ukrainian military, several hundred Western mercenaries and volunteers, mainly from Poland, have settled in Lisichansk. We hope that they will have the good sense not to die for a foreign country. As the experience of Mariupol has shown, even in dense urban development, defense is doomed if the locality is completely blocked."

Servicemen of the People's Militia of the LPR near the village of Novotoshkovsky

Image source: © RIA Novosti / Viktor Antonyuk

Now we are talking about the operational environment, that is, the group was deprived of supplies, as well as the opportunity to enter neighboring areas. However, there is no solid front — the blocked ones can maneuver relatively freely.

The operational is followed by a tactical environment. The attackers will pull up additional forces to the city, close the last loopholes and begin methodically hacking the defense with artillery and aviation. The defenders will have to sit in shelters in the hope of minimizing losses.

Then either an assault or a long siege. The troops of the allied armies are ready for both options. As the Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs of the LNR Vitaly Kiselyov said the other day, the Lisichansk-Severodonetsk agglomeration and the group that has settled here are completely blocked within a week.

New boiler

As part of the operation, the armies of Russia and the LPR slammed the lid of a large boiler south of Lisichansk. Up to three thousand Ukrainian security forces were surrounded in the fortified area near Gorsky and Zolotoy. The combined forces occupied the settlement of Rai-Alexandrovka, cutting off the last communication with Lisichansk.

Russian servicemen in the LPR

Image Source: © AP Photo

"Our troops have actually completely surrounded the group at Gorsky and Zolotoy," comments military expert Boris Rozhin. — Accordingly, now the ring will shrink. At the same time, the offensive against Belaya Gora, Volcheyarovka and Nikolaevka continues on the outer perimeter. The task there is simple — to go to the outskirts of Lisichansk, cross the highway to Artemovsk, in order to finally cordon off the Severodonetsk grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

Its defeat, the analyst notes, actually means the complete liberation of the LPR. Fighting is already underway on the southern outskirts of the city, including at the refinery near the village of Volcheyarovka.

The offensive on Slavyansk

According to experts, Kiev is trying to divert the attention of the Allied troops from Lisichansk and Severodonetsk: the shelling of Donetsk has significantly intensified. As noted in the DPR, they are being beaten from American howitzers — even in the central districts.

"The shelling of the capital is, of course, bad. But to transfer allied troops from the LPR to the south, near Avdiivka and Peski, before they break up the group surrounded in the north, is to fight according to the plans of the AFU," says an officer of the DPR army with the call sign Klim.

In addition, part of the forces involved in the west of the LPR will be able to develop an offensive on Artemovsk (Bakhmut) in the future. And from there, a direct road opens to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk — cities of great symbolic importance for the DPR. It was in them in the spring and summer of 2014 that the Donetsk militia underwent baptism of fire and eventually turned into a full-fledged army.

In addition, the Ukrainian headquarters of the Joint Forces Operation (OOS) is located in Kramatorsk. Its capture or destruction will decapitate the entire AFU grouping in the Donbass.