Reports say Russian forces have captured and occupied three settlements in eastern Ukraine amid Moscow’s push to gain control of the whole Donetsk region.
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Russian forces have captured and occupied three more settlements in the Donetsk region, including Selydove, which has been under intense Russian pressure over the last few weeks, Ukraine’s open-source intelligence interactive project DeepState reported.
In its regular daily update, Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said on Thursday that the Russians had attempted to break through defences on the Pokrovsk front, particularly in the vicinity of Selydove, but were repulsed.
Selydove was an important staging area for Ukrainian troops due to its location south of the city of Pokrovsk.
The question is whether the Ukrainian military managed to withdraw from Selydove on time to avoid being trapped and if this now opens the southern route towards Pokrovsk.
The UK Defence Ministry said earlier that the pace of Russian forces’ advances towards Porkovsk had significantly slowed down since Moscow troops intensified their assault on Selydove at the beginning of October.
In its intelligence update, the ministry said Moscow likely aims to use the E50 highway — which connects Selydove and Pokrovsk — as a secondary route of advance to Porkovsk.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War think tank (ISW) noted that Moscow’s focus on securing Selydove has come at the expense of Russia's ability to sustain a meaningful offensive drive on the city of Pokrovsk — the Kremlin's top priority in the area.
The capture of this settlement is likely to have exhausted Russian forces and probably reduced their combat ability.
Military observers note that Russian forces have significantly intensified their advances since September, pushing at their fastest rate in a long time.
The Russian command has likely ordered Russian forces to significantly increase their tempo of mechanised attacks before the full onset of muddy ground conditions, the ISW suggested.