In the Wudong area, fierce fighting continues. Especially the Donbas front has become a veritable meat grinder. Both sides assembled heavy troops, the Russian army continued to attack, and the Ukrainian army tried to hold their positions.
According to the battle report of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the 15th, under the powerful offensive of the Russian army, the Ukrainian army in Luhansk is retreating. “After the Russian army launched the offensive, the Ukrainian army hastily withdrew three kilometers from the previously occupied defense line. Even the Russian army’s solid second line of defense cannot withstand the offensive of the Russian army.”
The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly. After a period of stalemate, the Russian army seems to be making a major breakthrough.
In addition, in Bakhmut, Donetsk, CNN quoted the Ukrainian military as saying that 25 Ukrainian settlements were shelled by the Russian army that day. A Ukrainian soldier admitted that they were “difficult” to defend the remaining Several routes into the city.
According to Russian social media, 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers have even been surrounded by Russian troops. However, the Ukrainian army refuted this as “nonsense”. Although the situation in Bakhmut is very difficult, it is still in the hands of the Ukrainian army.
But the situation is indeed critical, especially for Ukraine. In a video speech on the evening of the 14th, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the Donbass front line is very difficult, but “soldiers are defending every inch of Ukrainian land with blood.”
Why has the Russian army attacked so violently recently?
An important reason, according to Zelensky, is that the Russian army tried to launch an offensive against the Ukrainian army to take the initiative before the arrival of Western aid.
Therefore, Zelensky warned: “This is why we must speed up. We must make decisions quickly, execute decisions quickly, provide military assistance quickly, provide training quickly, and speed is an important issue related to life.” In a word, Western aid must come sooner. Not just main battle tanks, but preferably fighter jets as well.
Another important reason is that on the first anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict, the Russian army needs greater results to get rid of the current passive situation. Once the important town of Bahmut is captured, the Russian forwards will point their swords at the two larger cities of Donetsk: Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, and even occupy the entire Donbas in one go.
The current fierce conflict is only the prelude to a larger battle. According to the general view in the West, Putin has sent many troops to the front, and a spring war should be launched soon.
Looking at the chart statistics of the Western media, the Russian army has assembled on the front line cumulatively:
soldiers, 500,000;
Tanks, 1800;
Chariots, 3950;
Cannon, 2700;
rocket launchers, 810 pcs;
fighter jets, 400;
Helicopters, 300.
The Russian army is likely to attack from two directions, one is the northeast direction, the spearhead is the Donbas, first take down Bakhmut, and then advance westward, and it is not ruled out to approach Kharkiv again; the other is the southeast direction, crossing the Dnieper, Kherson again besieged.
Although the U.S. military believes that the Russian army is well-trained, but insufficiently equipped, it is difficult to launch a major war before May. But according to the Ukrainian army’s intelligence department, the Russian army’s large-scale offensive is likely to start before March.
The Ukrainian army is also mobilizing its horses and fighting hard. A widely circulated video on social media shows that in the ice and snow, a large number of Ukrainian troops are gathering in the Udong area. In the video, a large number of tanks and chariots can also be seen in arrays. The soldiers were heavily armed and in high spirits.
According to the recent major decisions of Western countries, hundreds of Leopard main battle tanks are being rushed to Ukraine. These modern Western tanks will play an important role in the Udong campaign.
According to US Secretary of Defense Austin, even if the Russian army does not launch an offensive, the Ukrainian army will “launch an offensive sometime in the spring.”
In the past year, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has gone through roughly three stages:
In the first stage, the Russian army attacked and once broke through to the outskirts of Kyiv, and the Ukrainian army defended with difficulty. In the second stage, the two sides were in a stalemate, and the Russian army was forced to give up its all-out offensive, and heavy troops fought fiercely in Donbas.
In the third stage, the Ukrainian army counterattacked, regained Kherson and other towns, and even launched a surprise attack on the Russian territory. The Russian army fell into a passive position.
In the second year, it is likely to enter the fourth stage: the Russian army makes a comeback and outflanks the Ukrainian army; the Ukrainian army is ready to try to hit the Russian army hard.
For this war, the Russian army had mobilized part of the war before and recruited and trained another 300,000 troops; the Ukrainian army obtained a large number of western weapons, especially the main battle tanks, and it is not ruled out that there will be fighter jets in the future.
What will happen then?
Fight for weapons, fight for logistics, but also fight for the art of command and fighting will. It may be a big defeat for one side, and the losing party will either take more extreme actions or have to accept peace talks; more likely it will be a meat-grinding war, both sides have suffered heavy losses, but they continue to charge the meat grinder .
The clock is ticking and the battle is heating up. As the first anniversary approaches, we don’t see any dawn of peace but more blood. We will soon witness a tragic slaughter, and thousands of soldiers must be buried in this spring.