The Ukrainian army will try to cut off the militias from the border with Russia - expert
Moscow - Kyiv, July 2 (Navigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Director of the Kyiv Institute for the Transformation of Society Oleg Soskin told RBC that the ATO forces are trying to cut off large rebel groups from each other and from the border with Russia. “Two clusters of terrorists should be captured in cauldrons, in the area of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk and Lisichansk,” the expert suggested.
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During the offensive in the first half of June, interrupted by a unilateral ceasefire, government forces managed to significantly weaken the militia’s ability to quickly transfer forces to both areas, RBC writes. After ousting militia forces from Krasny Liman earlier this month, Ukrainian security forces launched an offensive north of the rebel-controlled Slavyansk-Kramatorsk zone, occupying the large villages of Zakotnoye, Kirovsk and Yampol. Militia detachments moved to Seversk, 45 km east of Krasny Liman.
Then the security forces managed to defeat the separatist garrison in this city of 12 people, and the commander of the Donetsk militias, Igor Strelkov, even said that he was in “complete operational encirclement.” During the truce, the militia regained control over Seversk and several adjacent points.
Strelkov’s people failed to restore contact with Seversk during the week of the truce. On the night of June 23, the Ukrainian army, as reported by the commander of the militia, significantly increased its forces at the crossing of the Seversky Donets River near the villages of Krivaya Luka and Ilyichovka. The transport route connecting Seversk with Krasny Liman, and then Slavyansk, was closed.
The militias had one more roundabout route from Slavyansk to the east through Rai-Alexandrovka, but on June 28-30, units of the Ukrainian army gained a foothold in the area of Malinovka and Nikiforovka, it follows from the messages of the militias. “Connection with Seversk has been interrupted again,” Strelkov admitted on Monday. The Slavic-Kramatorsk group was again cut off from safe supply routes.
On Tuesday, with the end of the truce, Ukrainian forces resumed aerial artillery shelling of Slavyansk and neighboring villages, and also built on their continued success in cutting off Strelkov’s group from detachments concentrated in the area of Seversk and Lisichansk. The village of Zakotnoye again came under the control of the security forces, and the fighting came directly to the outskirts of Seversk.
Another strategic task is the complete closure of the border with Russia in the Lugansk region by Ukrainian security forces. During the June offensive, government troops managed to take control of more than 250 km of the border (Poroshenko announced this on June 14), but by the end of the truce, three border points remained under the control of the militia: Dolzhansky, Izvarino and Krasnopartizansk. The Luhansk region “must be closed” to the flow of weapons and those wishing to join the ranks of the militia, Soskin outlined the goals of the operation.
In this direction, the Ukrainian military managed to carry out the only unconditionally successful operation - taking control of the Dolzhansky border checkpoint, 100 km southeast of Lugansk.
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