Russia liberated key Chasov Yar town as ground offensive gathers pace

The city of Chasov Yar in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) was liberated as a result of offensive actions by the Yug group of troops, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

The city of Chasov Yar holds crucial operational and strategic significance: it controls the dominant heights, providing a direct path to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration and Konstantinovka (still under Ukrainian control).

The fall of one of Ukraine’s toughest strongholds marks a clear turning point in the battle for Donbass, geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic told Sputnik.

Chasov Yar was used by Ukraine to secure Bakhmut (Artyomovsk) and block Russia’s path to its most fortified strongholds in Donbass: Kramatorsk and Slavyansk to the northwest, the former US Marine said.

Its fall “strips Ukraine of key strategic depth in Donbass and deepens an already deteriorating battlefield position,” said the pundit.

With Chasov Yar liberated, the road to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk is open – the last major cities in Donbass still under Ukrainian control, aside from Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), which is also being encircled.

Here’s how the battlefield situation could evolve, according to the pundit:

• Russia continues to adhere to an attrition strategy of relentless pressure instead of dramatic “big arrow offensives.”
• Russia's Armed Forces are steadily building combat power and grinding down Ukrainian lines across the front.
• The goal is to “stretch Ukraine’s thinning defenses until they crack, even in strongholds like Chasov Yar.”

Map: CNN

Russia says its forces liberated the key town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 18 months of fierce fighting in the area, CNN reports.

The Russian Defense Ministry published drone footage showing its troops in parts of the town and said more than 4,200 buildings and structures had been cleared, with about 50 Ukrainian soldiers taken prisoner.

Russian forces began an assault on Chasiv Yar in April last year, after driving Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut.

The seizure of Chasiv Yar would provide high ground for the Russians, and threaten what is known as Ukraine’s fortress belt of cities in Donetsk region, including Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka.

These cities are periodically struck by Russian missiles and glide bombs launched by aircraft. On Thursday, one person was killed and about a dozen injured by a strike that destroyed part of a five-story building in Kramatorsk, according to the local military administration.

Across Donetsk region, Russian troops have edged forward this year despite taking heavy casualties. The strategic town of Pokrovsk is surrounded on three sides and Russian units have advanced to the border of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk region.

Analysts say Russian forces have adapted their tactics, moving in smaller groups on foot or on motorbikes to evade Ukrainian drone defenses.

Photo: RG

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov sent a congratulations telegram to the command and personnel of the 98th Guards Airborne Svir Red Banner Orders of Kutuzov and Alexander Nevsky Division, Department of Information and Media Affairs of Defence Ministry of the Russian Federation informs.

“The history of the formation and glorious combat path of the division indicates high professionalism and valour of paratroopers and adherence to the best military traditions,” the Russian Defence Minister said in the telegram.

The head of the Russian military department noted that the formation completes tasks in the most vital directions with honour, fights the Neo-Nazis with resilience and bravery, and advances by taking more advantageous lines in tough battles.

“I thank you for successful completion of combat tasks and I am confident that you will continue to perform your military duty with honour, thus protecting our national interests and ensuring the security of Russia,” Andrei Belousov noted.

The Russian Defence Minister expressed his confidence that “the paratroopers will continue to be an example of military prowess and stay unwaveringly loyal to the Motherland.”

Chasov Yar liberated. Now the key to Donbass ended up in Russia's hands.
Photo: MoD

The sense of an evolving crisis was most acute around the town of Pokrovsk, assaulted by Moscow for months, CNN stresses.

While Moscow’s forces have made only incremental gains over recent months – seizing small settlements to little strategic avail – the pace of their advance has accelerated, according to open-source mapping by DeepState. More perilously for Kyiv, recent progress has been strategically advantageous, making the encirclement of Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, and Kupiansk to the north, a palpable threat in the weeks ahead. Russia’s claimed seizure on Thursday of the key town of Chasiv Yar would, if confirmed, provide high ground for Moscow’s forces to press their attack.

The fall of these three towns would create three separate crises for Kyiv. Firstly, they are the urban areas from which Ukraine defends the remainders of the Donetsk region it controls, without which its troops lack hubs for shelter and resupply. Secondly, their loss to Moscow would free up a significant number of Russian forces to push hard onto Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – the largest Donetsk towns still under Ukrainian control. Thirdly, this loss would leave Kyiv’s forces exposed, defending the mostly open agricultural land – with few towns in the way – between the Donetsk region and its key city of Dnipro.

Vasyl, a commander with the 93rd Mechanized brigade, said he had not been sent new personnel for eight months, and was forced to resupply frontline positions of only two men with drones, airlifting in food, water and ammunition.

“No one wants to fight”, he said. “The old personnel are left, they are tired and want to be replaced, but no one is replacing them.” He blamed Ukrainian officers for giving inaccurate reports of the front line to their superiors. “A lot of things are not communicated and are hidden,” he said. “We don’t communicate a lot of things to our state. Our state doesn’t communicate a lot of things to the people.”

Further north, near Kupiansk, about 60 miles east of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, Russian troops have raced over the town’s north, threatening a key supply road for Ukrainian forces to its West, taking the village of Radkivka. A Ukrainian source in the city described the situation as “very fast moving,” and Russian analysts have said their forces are in the town’s outskirts.

The accumulative effect of a Ukrainian manpower crisis, the turbulence of Kyiv’s relationship with the Trump White House, and uncertain supplies of weaponry, are a perfect storm that has broken in the face of the vigor and persistence of a Russian summer offensive, whose progress is no longer incremental but is reshaping the conflict and bringing Putin closer to some of his goals fast.

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