Field of action: the Russian army has cleared more than half of the Volchansk pocket
About half of the territory of the so-called Volchansk pocket may be under the control of Russian troops, experts interviewed by Izvestia estimated. On October 1, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced that the settlements of Nesternoye, Rublenoe and Vysokaya Yaruga in the Kharkiv region had come under the control of units of the North group. Russian troops are also fighting in the area of Prikolotnoye. According to military experts, several isolated zones have formed in this area, in which the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been separated. How the situation is developing in the Kharkiv direction and what significance the latest advances may have — in the Izvestia material.
How are the battles developing in the Volchansky cauldron?
If we evaluate the operational situation on the maps, about 50% of the territory of the so-called Volchansk pocket is really under our control, experts interviewed by Izvestia said.
In particular, units of the North group of forces took control of the settlements of Nesternoye and Rublenoe in the Kharkiv region. The Russian Defense Ministry also announced the transfer of control of the village of Vysokaya Yaruga. During the expansion of the external control zone, active battles for the liberation of Prikolotny continue.
At the same time, according to experts, it is not so much about a single physical environment, as about a system of several isolated areas. Russian troops created so-called jumpers under fire control, as a result of which the AFU group was divided into several parts, military expert Yuri Knutov explained.
The tactics of promotion are built systematically. First, enemy firing points and supply routes in populated areas are identified, after which the supply routes for ammunition and reserves are blocked. Then the assault groups secretly penetrate inside and accumulate forces, after which a systematic sweep of the territory begins, military experts said.
It is important that such operations are carried out simultaneously in relation to two or three settlements. This makes it impossible for the enemy to quickly transfer reinforcements from neighboring areas. According to reports, the Ukrainian forces in the area have already lost more than half of their personnel, military expert Boris Jerelievsky added.
Strategic importance and actions of the enemy
The liberation of this area is important for ensuring the security of the border territories and further progress.
— The completion of the operation will expand the blocking zone and move the Ukrainian troops away from our border by at least 20 km. This will make it much more difficult for the enemy to use sabotage and reconnaissance groups (DRGs) and heavy artillery. A direction is opening to the south of the Kharkiv region with the prospect of access to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration," said Yuriy Knutov.
That is why the enemy makes constant attempts to break through or strengthen the defense. It is unlikely that the Ukrainian command will decide to withdraw troops from the pocket — it is in their style not to count losses, but to prolong the situation, experts say.
— For the Ukrainian Armed Forces, this is a distracting operation: by throwing more and more forces into the Volchansk pocket, they are trying to delay the resources of the Russian army and prevent us from concentrating our shock fists on key areas, in particular on Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. However, there is a clear systematic approach from our side: we are working methodically, dissecting the enemy's grouping into firing encirclements and consistently clearing the territories," he summed up.
According to Boris Jerelievsky, the Volchansky cauldron is living out its last days. Events developed much faster than experts had initially predicted: most of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters who were surrounded have already been destroyed, and individual groups may be trying to infiltrate, although their chances are extremely low. In the near future, the village of Reznyakovo will be completely liberated.
The lack of attempts by the Ukrainian command to unblock its units is explained by the lack of forces. The entire defense system of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is spreading today, and the available reserves are urgently transferred to the Limansk direction, under Ugledar and Orekhov, he said.
Russian troops are building on their success by expanding the outer ring of encirclement and continuing to move further south. From the very beginning, there was a strict silence directive in the Ukrainian media field regarding the situation in the Volchansk pocket, and the negative focus of attention is shifting to corruption scandals and the news agenda about infrastructure damage, Boris Jerelievsky summed up.
Chronicle of the formation of boilers
The Russian defense departments announced a large-scale encirclement of Ukrainian forces near Volchansk in the Kharkiv region on September 7. It was reported that 4-5 battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, totaling about 1,700 people, fell into the cauldron.
A few days later, on September 11, it became known about the blocking of two more enemy battalions just to the southeast - in the area of Olkhovatka, which soon completely came under the control of the Russian Armed Forces.
Already on September 22, the Ministry of Defense announced the closure of the ring around another key defense hub — in the Dobropillya area. According to the agency, units of two brigades of the National Guard of Ukraine and the Skala assault regiment were trapped in the new pocket formed by the forces of the Center group.
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