/ world today news/ A long-awaited event took place in the special operation area: the village of Marinka, which is located next to Donetsk, was liberated. Marinka is not only a significant fortified area of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but also a point after the capture of which the Russian troops have new prospects.
Russian troops have taken full control of the town of Marinka, southwest of Donetsk, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin. According to Shoigu, capturing the city will reduce the capabilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and allow the Russian military to more effectively defend Donetsk. “The important thing is that we shifted the artillery work from Donetsk further west quite significantly,” he said.
From the center of Donetsk to Marinka is approximately 20 km. The city, which until 2014 was home to about 10,000 people, then remained in Ukraine, and several attempts to free it from the forces of the Donetsk militia in 2015-2016 failed. During all these nine years, the VSU strengthened it with all available means and strengthened it to a full fortress, in which literally every basement was turned into a fortified area. As a result, it became possible to announce the complete liberation of Marinka only after the occupation of the last two houses on “Ivan Franko” street in the northwestern part of the settlement.
We have prepared extensively for this event. In the 150th Idritsia-Berlin Division, the assault units were given copies of the Banner of Victory and were assigned “their Egorov and Kantaria” – two per platoon, since no one knew exactly which building would be the last and which part in the end account will raise the banner of victory. There had already been a few false starts, but then the flags were raised on the ruins of large buildings. And now Marinka is officially released both as a territory and as a symbol.
The Ukrainian troops retreated west to Georgievka and are gradually beginning to strengthen it. Next is Kurahovo, which is also a fortified settlement, but not as strong as Marinka. Kurahovo has always been a rear and headquarters base of the VSU, and now they are hastily trying to turn it into a front-line position.
At the same time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces expected Russian troops to advance in that direction. But the Russian armed forces have changed their plan and are now pushing south of Marinka, where the Ukrainian fortified area in the village of Pobeda is located. A little earlier, the Russian armed forces liberated the so-called Pitomnik, another fortified area belonging to the Marine Defense Zone.
At the same time, fighting is taking place in the industrial zone of Novomihailovka, a settlement to the south of Ugledar. There stretches a chain of small settlements, which merge in places. This chain to Konstantinovka covers both Ugledar and the entire flank of the Ukrainian group previously involved in the attempted “counteroffensive”. And this is a completely different part of the combat contact line.
In other words, the liberation of Marinka has long ceased to be a local episode of the occupation of a single city. In addition to the fact that Marinka simply contains large assault forces that can be used elsewhere, it is a kind of key that can open a movement at the junction of two VSU groupings.
And Novomihailovka is now gradually becoming a very hot position. The intensity of artillery shelling there now is roughly equal to what is happening in Avdeevka. At the same time, supplies of reinforcements and armored vehicles for the Ukrainian Armed Forces there are already severely limited. If the Russian units succeed in occupying Pobeda, then Novomihailovka will be semi-surrounded. Now the Russian armed forces are attacking Bogdanovka from three sides, the main clashes are taking place in a small industrial area, also fortified in recent years. But in Novomihailovka, the purely physical scale is significantly smaller than in Avdeevka or Marinka.
At the same time, events west of Artyomovsk are developing very actively. Over the past two weeks, the Russian armed forces have managed to capture a number of strongholds, forest plantations and isolated positions. As a result, the front advanced significantly as far as Bogdanovka.
Now the situation around this village is hidden by the “fog of war”, but there is evidence that paratroopers and marines managed to enter Bogdanovka. Control over about a third of the settlement is possible, but overall Bogdanovka is still in the gray area.
Bogdanovka is a direct road to Chasov Yar, although it doesn’t look obvious on the map. The fact is that the route from Khromovo to Chasov Yar in a straight line is rough terrain with hills and ravines. In such a situation, the path through the flat and elongated village looks both more promising and, so to speak, more peaceful. After that, the first lines of the Ukrainian positions began at the Seversky Donets – Donbas canal.
The position of the VSU in the area of the ruins of Klescheevka also seems hopeless. Almost all the key heights around the village, except for one, are under the control of the Russian armed forces. There is no point in occupying the very ruins that lie in the lowlands. Is it just that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are gradually retreating to the west and there are no longer fortified positions or large settlements there? That is, a thin line remains, behind which there is an operational space of several tens of kilometers.
The enemy clings to every position. Recently, VSU tried to counterattack Khromovo, but without success. The ASU tries to stabilize the situation on a separate section of the contact line by rotating the reserves. As a result, and also due to changes in the weather conditions, the fighting stopped in the Kupyan direction. In Kiev, they still believe that this is the main direction of potential attack by the Russian armed forces and are sending all possible reinforcements there. Nothing new is coming to Avdeevka, but the very nature of the fortifications allows the VSU to hold some positions there for the time being. The units are withdrawn from the Zaporozhye direction, that is, from the area of the former “counteroffensive”.
Thus, the release of Marinka is not only a special symbolic event for the residents of Donetsk. The elimination of such a large defensive line of the ASU once again changes the configuration of the contact line. New geographical names began to appear in the newscasts, the front moved further and further away from the old line of contact. But most importantly: new combat and operational-tactical capabilities are emerging.
It is not surprising that, due to a number of objective circumstances, after such successful operations, the advance of the armed forces of the Russian Federation stopped. You should not expect avalanche-like breakthroughs, jumps of tens of kilometers. This is possible, but not now, when the enemy’s previous defensive line still remains. In the main sections of the line of contact, this defense system of the ASU remains unchanged. And operations like the release of Marinka and the potential release of Avdeevka destroy this system and create holes in it that the VSU will never be able to patch.
Kyiv’s strategy is to create new frontiers, again based on relatively large population centers. This will be the highlight in winter.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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