The Russian occupation army, as expected, went on the offensive in the Luhansk region. Ukrainian units hold the defense. This is stated in the report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) for February 8.
“Russian troops resumed the initiative in Ukraine and launched another big offensive in the Luhansk region. The pace of Russian operations along the Svatovo-Kremennaya line in the west of the Luhansk region has increased markedly over the past week,” the ISW report says..
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Geolocation footage, military analysts say, confirmed the achievement of the Russians in the Dvuhletny area northwest of Svatovoe. In addition, the Russian military command seems to have fully committed elements of several conventional divisions to decisive offensive operations along the Svatovo-Kremennaya line, as previously reported by ISW..
“The commitment of significant parts of at least three major Russian divisions to offensive operations in this sector indicates that the Russian offensive has begun, even if Ukrainian forces are preventing Russian forces from making significant gains so far.. The Russian offensive has probably not yet reached its full pace,” the report said..
Analysts note that units of the 2nd motorized rifle division, which in January, after deploying in Belarus, was transferred to the Luhansk region, will also join the battle in this direction..
“Although Russian forces in the Luhansk region now have the initiative, full involvement could lead to their final culmination along the Svatovo-Kremennaya line, without achieving their goals of capturing the entire Lugansk and Donetsk regions.. This climax is likely to provide a window of opportunity for Ukrainian forces to use in their own counteroffensive,” analysts suggest..
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Recall that the ISW preliminary report said that Russia had signaled since the beginning of this year that it would soon launch a new large-scale offensive, but it seems that it is not ready to carry out such an operation in such an “unrealistic time frame”.