Russian forces break through east of Kramatorsk, bypassing Kostiantynivka and Druzhkivka

Russian troops have broken through in the Donetsk region toward Kramatorsk from the east, bypassing Kostiantynivka and Druzhkivka.

This was reported by Ukrainian military expert Kostiantyn Mashovets.

According to his data, Russian assault groups crossed the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal along a fairly wide stretch and advanced in several directions simultaneously: Fedorivka–Nykanorivka, Pryvillia–Malynivka, and Mankivka–Vasiutynske.

Russian forces entered Malynivka and Tykhonivka and reached the eastern outskirts of Vasiutynske. Individual forward Russian infantry groups in the Vasiutynske area are now approximately 6.8–7 km east of the Kramatorsk airfield.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to Mashovets, continue to hold a number of positions in the Yurkivka and Nykanorivka area, as well as the Vasylivska Pustosh–Vasiutynske line. At the same time, Russia is attempting to bypass Ukrainian positions west of Chasiv Yar and advance toward Druzhkivka.

Mashovets notes that while the AFU are waging “stubborn fighting for the flanks” of the Kramatorsk direction, Russian forces have managed to carry out “comparatively successful offensive operations against the Sloviansk–Kramatorsk agglomeration head-on, that is, from the east.”

In the expert’s assessment, this creates “fairly obvious preconditions” for completing the first phase of the Russian offensive operation this very autumn — reaching the near approaches to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

At the same time, Mashovets believes that completing the entire operation before the end of the year still looks problematic for Russia: Russian forces have so far failed to achieve a deep operational encirclement of the entire agglomeration.