Situation in Donbass by August 24
A summary of the situation in Donbass by August 24.
1. First, about the military action in the area of the shoreline. Not a long time ago this would seem laughable to some, but today fighting broke out in the area of Novoazovsk, where a powerful air defense hub was created since April and where an assorted soup made of various units of dubious combat readiness is stationed to cover the border with the Russian Federation. After creating the South Cauldron 2.0, the militia started to feel out the other checkpoints to the south-east of Marinovka and were surprised to find out that there's almost no cover there, everything was pulled to the main front line, and there's a hole to the south of Amvrosiyevka, which was only partially covered by screens. Naturally, first the militia reconnaissance and sabotage groups started to seep to the south-east, which led to a sweep of "Uspenka" checkpoint. After that an operational void emerged before the militia up to the shore, because there were no serious forces there. As a result, several reconnaissance and sabotage group deployed to almost the actual Novoazovsk and to the settlements Kholodnoye and Sedovo, carrying out several disturbing rafales and attacks on checkpoints.
It is clear that the militia has no forces here to capture settlements (not even speaking of Novoazovsk or Mariupol), but judging from the announcements that a bomb shelter was opened in Mariupol, it appears that the junta command on this location lost its balance. Not only is it that the hole in the border continues to grow, but also a threat for Novoazovsk and Mariupol emerged, which is for now remote. Because the junta has not many forces here, and who knows what may come through the border, and there's also a hole in the front line south of Amvrosiyevka, all of this doesn't generate any optimism for the junta. Overall, what's happening is not yet a decisive strike but simply a disturbing raid on the enemy rear, which ended up unpleasantly surprising to the junta. And let's be honest, few among us expected that the military action on the Azov shore will commence so fast. Overall, the tendency is beneficial for us.
2. Under Ilovaysk the junta continued the attempts to break a wall with its own head by throwing effectively all combat capable units into the attack on Ilovaysk. The attack choked even before the speakers of the junta managed to announce that Ilovaysk is captured yet again. This is a quite weird stubbornness, especially considering a more promising plan with an encirclement and capturing Mospino and the hole in the front south of Amvrosiyevka. There's no strategic sense in this since a long time ago, it is an attempt to shift the tide by wrong means, because even if the junta will by some miracle manage to somehow capture the semi-destroyed Ilovaysk and will push the militia out of there, then this won't go beyond a tactical success on the background of the lamentable operational situation.
3. Positional fighting continued today in the area of Saur-Mogila, Shakhtyorsk, and Torez. The junta suggested a movement toward Shakhtyorsk and Torez with its mechanized detachments, but this offensive didn't go too far.
Such fighting, in which the junta is quite aimlessly wasting its reserves, is in principle beneficial for the militia, it triggers a suspicion among the punitive battalions that the command of the punitive operation purposefully leads the units of the south group into a meat-grinder (according to one version, this is done by agents of the Kremlin, by another version this is done by Poroshenko's agents who get rid of radical elements in this way). Overall, another week of such combat and the junta may encounter unpleasant surprises here. The South Cauldron 2.0 is holding on for now, but the losses and the trophies there will be plentiful - the militia carry out attacks on Dyakovo, offering the same conditions to the current generation of the encircled ones that were offered to the previous generation of the encircled ones - leave into the Russian Federation and surrender materiel to the militia.
4. North of Donetsk the junta today altogether ran out of steam, only suggesting the continuation of the already failed offensive by the forces of the reconnaissance and sabotage groups and shelling, while the militia already found the forces for the offensive on Uglegorsk, which although wasn't captured but doesn't look as a bridgehead for an offensive on Yenakiyevo anymore. The militia will try to capture it in the coming days in order to render Gorlovka and Yenakiyevo safe and to prevent the dissection of Donetsk-Yenakiyevo group. Overall, today we can finally state that the offensive on Donetsk failed and there's no direct threat for the city. Meanwhile, the enemy was not only pushed back fro Yasinovataya and to Uglegorsk. In the area of Zhdanovka yet another mini-cauldron emerged, the wedge in the area of Verkhnyaya and Nizhnyaya Krynka (n.b. the names of these two settlements translate into "Upper Lid" and "Lower Lid", which has to do with their geographical position with respect to the East side of Donetsk-Makeyevka agglomeration) was liquidated, the militia took prisoners and trophies. The front line is gradually closing in on Debaltsevo, which is one of the priority targets for the militia.
5. North of Debaltsevo the militia today carried out an unexpected for the junta strike to the north-west, as a result of which the forward units managed to approach Severodonetsk. The triumphant announcements that Severodonetsk and Lisichansk will be recaptured immediately followed, but actually due to the lack of militia forces it will be problematic to capture two major cities at once, especially by the forces of forward reconnaissance and sabotage groups. Although the weakness of the junta forces on this location gives various opportunities for performing offensive actions, the thing is that the majority of the group that cut the Lisichansk protrusion was pilfered for other locations - something was sent under Debaltsevo and Yasinovataya, something went under Schastye and Stanitsa Luhanskaya. As a result, the militia felt weakness and performed and unpleasant strike, which led to a rupture in the front line. The main thing is that this breakthrough and the reconnaissance and sabotage froufrou on the shore show that the operational depth of the enemy battle lines is not very high and by breaking its front line on the weakly covered locations the militia gain the opportunity to act in an operational void, where the enemy has effectively no reserves. But due to the lack of forces these unpleasant for the junta breakthroughs do not lead to decisive results yet. Of course, if the militia could deploy 15-20 tanks, the same number of IFVs, and 200-300 of infantry for such strikes, then they could actually capture cities in the enemy rear. But for now it is the way it is.
6. The assault on Luhansk failed, the enemy was pushed back from Khryashevatoye, under Novosvetlovka the enemy is still holding on, but these are purely defensive actions now. Meanwhile, the militia carry out an offensive action against Lutugino and Schastye. The loss of which will mean a complete catastrophe for the junta military that besiege Luhansk, which will be cut in several pieces, although a part of them are already effectively in the state of the operational encirclement. Today a predictable strike was performed from the south in the area of Volnukhino, as a result of which a direct threat for Lutugino appeared, the reconnaissance and sabotage groups of the militia showed up on its outskirts. The overall meaning of the fighting in this area is that if the militia here will be able to recapture Lutugino, then they will be able to fully unblock the roadway Luhansk-Krasnyi Luch, which will greatly increase the connectedness of the Novorossia territory and the coordination of its armed forces. In this respect, Lutugino and Debaltsevo are the key points of the transport network in this area and the control over them is a part of the struggle of the sides for the operational initiative.
Overall, the situation although remains difficult, but has a clear tendency for improvement, the militia is carrying out offensive action on a number of locations, while the junta offensive choked and stopped almost everywhere.
http://voicesevas.ru/news/yugo-vostok/3976-voyna-na-yugo-vostoke-onlayn-23082014-hronika-sobytiy-post-obnovlyaetsya.html (in Russian) - the online-broadcast on "Voice of Sevastopol" for 08/23.
Original article: http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/1747647.html (in Russian)