Not Bakhmut or Soledar. A new Russian attack begins

In the Zaporizhia region of Ukraine, Russian troops went on the attack, according to reports from both sides of the conflict. The Russians are opening a front in a new direction to draw Ukrainian reserve units into the fight. “It's a sign that a major Russian offensive is imminent,” a military analyst said.

The Russian army announced that since Saturday its troops had carried out an “offensive action” in the Zaporozhye region, and that “more advantageous lines and positions” were to be seized. This section of the front has been much calmer in recent months than in the east of the country, where the battles for Bakhmut and Soledar took place. Although Russia announced last year that it had annexed the Zaporizhia region, it does not fully control it. It did not fall into Russian hands. The capital of the region – with a population of 740,000 inhabitants of Zaporozhye.

According to Russian sources, Putin's troops were to gain several kilometers of the ground by advancing 30 kilometers to Zaporozhye. An important battle is being waged for the town of Kamenskoye - an important junction of Ukrainian defense. Control over it opens the way to the capital of the circuit.

Russian trick

The Battle of Zaporozhye fits in with earlier Russian plans to capture this region. Now it may be about an auxiliary strike, the task of which is to attract Ukrainian reserves. This, in turn, will create favorable conditions for the main Russian strike, which is likely to be planned from the north.

It's a ruse to draw Ukrainian units into the fight. I still believe that the main objective of the Russian offensive will be to cut off the part of the country east of the Dnipro river. It will be a strong blow from the north. Russian forces are stationed more than 300 km from the Ukrainian border. They haven't moved yet, but it may take as little as two days for them to move to their starting positions. Therefore, the Ukrainian military must carefully monitor the situation.

These are not large-scale operations

The Ukrainian staff confirmed over the weekend that the Russians had started an attack in the direction of Zaporizhia. On January 22, 20 artillery strikes were recorded in villages and towns along the front line.

At the same time, Colonel Yevgeny Erin of the Ukrainian Defense Forces Local Command said that Russia had not launched a large-scale offensive in Zaporizhia.

They try to storm our positions regularly in small groups of 10. At some moments they even managed to achieve partial success, but were stopped and forced to retreat - said Col. Erin.

 

Fierce battles continue for control of areas in the outskirts of the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces plan to attack them after flanking them from two directions: Soledar in the north (they have already won the battle there) and Kleszczejewka in the south (fighting is still going on there). Soledar was captured at the cost of a “mountain of corpses” estimated at 4,000 killed.