The Russian military, which is trying to advance in the Donetsk region, is unlikely to be able to capture such large cities as Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, says George Varos, an analyst at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
According to Varos, mechanized units of the Russian army can travel long distances across open plains, rural areas, where Ukrainian defenses are well fortified.. But not prepared for urban combat - the pace slows down as you get closer to a more densely populated area.
“At the beginning of the war, they managed to get to Brovary and other parts of Kyiv quite quickly through the fields. But where the Russians had to operate in an urban environment, their operations stopped. When the Russians were in the vicinity of Obolon, in Bucha, near Borodyanka, their operations slowed down. Promotion in Mariupol, in that urban environment, was also slow,” says Varos in an interview with Suspilny..
With this in mind, analysts expect the Kramatorsk-Bakhmut line, primarily on the E40 highway, where there are prepared Ukrainian defense positions, to slow Russia's pace..
As an example of the unwillingness of the Russians to act in an urban environment, Varos cites the attack on Seversk.. The Russians have not been able to take this small town since they announced they were entering the border of the Lugansk region..
“I do not see the prospects that the Russians will achieve quick successes, given the more complex and better prepared defense of the Donetsk region. We believe that the Kremlin is unlikely to capture them (Kramatorsk, Slavyansk and other cities of Donbass - ed..
), and, moreover, before September 11, ”the analyst sums up.
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Why the aggressor failed the first stage of the invasion and failed to succeed in the second? What tasks should our army solve at the third stage in order to oust the Russians from Ukraine? What are the consequences of a truce to which Putin will persuade Ukraine? Read in the article by Major General Sergey Savchenko \? It will not happen. Everything has already begun"