The battle of Donbas is considered very important for both Russia and Ukraine, will 100,000 Ukrainian troops be able to resist the attack of the Russian army?
According to the latest news, after the end of the urban battle in Mariupol, the Russian Army advanced to the West and launched a large-scale siege and destruction campaign in Donbas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia’s special military operation has entered a new phase.
According to information from the Russian press, from the evening of the 18th to the 19th, the Russian Army concentrated a large amount of artillery fire and conducted an intense and “unprecedented” artillery bombardment on the 500-kilometer-long front. from Kharkiv to Donetsk.
The explosions of various rocket launches and large artillery shells shook the ground. Russian firepower destroyed 1,260 Ukrainian military targets and completed the target volume overnight, equal to the past month.
It can be seen that after most of the airpower of Ukraine’s neutralize Russian Army can take the full advantage of its artillery devastating power, just as what the Western media used to describe in the past.
The Russian military also by its own actions, to prove that, the reason for the unsatisfactory combat operations in the previous period is mainly due to their fear of civilian casualties.
And secondly, the firepower of the Russian Army is proceeding on the Donbas front, also reflecting that, before that, the Russian side had a “indecisive” mentality in strategy, leading to “hesitancy” in the process.
However, Russia’s goodwill early in the campaign did not yield the expected response; vice versa, not only lost troops, but also caused the Black Sea Fleet to lose its main “flagship”; while being derided by the West and Ukraine as “weak”.
At this point, Russia’s high-ranking insiders finally came to their senses and reached a consensus. Because there is no hope of “fighting quickly, winning quickly”, it is necessary to switch to “hit firmly, advance firmly”, focusing on gaining control of the eastern region of Ukraine; dividing Ukraine into two, creating a strategic buffer zone with a depth of 300 to 500 km.
Currently, the fighting in the Mariupol urban area has ended. Only in the area of Azovstal Steel Plant, there are more than 1,000 soldiers of Azovstal Battalion and foreign mercenaries, still fighting entrenched in the tunnels of the Factory.
It is worth mentioning that after the decision to “have no qualms”, the combat strength of the Russian Army was fully revealed, surprising the West when it took only two hours from the time the Russian army was given the ultimatum to arrive at the end of the battle in the city.
The Ukrainian signal intelligence side, which also intercepted the radio call of the Russian forward commander, showed that they were about to make a big surprise for the Ukrainians. It is reported that the Russian Army was suspected of using a large thermobaric bomb weighing 3 tons in the final battle.
It is said that, after the white mushroom cloud rose up inside the Mariupol steel plant, the violent shock wave continuously swept away everything on the ground, and the scene was like the end of the day. The Russian commander said on the radio: The target area has been leveled to the ground, as ordered.
According to pre-war information, the army in the East of the Ukrainian Army now numbered about 100,000, and the Azov Battalion totaled nearly 3,000, all of which were on the verge of being wiped out.
More than one thousand Azov Battalion remained blocked in the bunker and could not get out, and the Russian Army did not intend to play tunnel combat with their opponents, but block the entrance and exit. for this force to be gradually exhausted due to hunger and disease.
Military analysts say that, although the computerization level of the Russian Army is not high, the advantage in firepower is quite obvious; Moreover, after more than 50 days of actual combat launch, the Russian Army has fully entered combat mode. Various logistical tasks, are also operating in an orderly and efficient manner.
It must be affirmed that, as long as Russia itself does not make major strategic mistakes, a complete capture of the Donbass region in the next three weeks is quite possible, and Moscow can hope that, the large-scale battle in Ukraine, will be completely over within 100 days
But this is not the end. According to the US side, this could be the beginning of a new situation. Analysts speculate that the US and NATO will certainly continue to support western Ukraine to confront Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine, and that sporadic wars between the two sides could continue for some long time.