Ukrainian forces lose Chasiv Yar, retreat to Konstantinovka

Both Russian soldiers and Ukrainian military personnel believe that there is very little time left before the Russian forces take total control of Chasiv Yar, a city in the Bakhmut area of the Donetsk region. The Ukrainian military are thus forced to retreat to the strategic center of Donbass, the settlement of Konstantinovka.

Photo: vitalykuzmin.net by Кузьмин Виталий Владимирович, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Russian Armed Forces take Chasiv Yar's highest microdistrict

The Russian Armed Forces have knocked out the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Kanal microdistrict in Chasiv Yar, the easternmost and highest part of the city. Last night, paratroopers of the 98th Airborne Division took control of the last high-rise building. The Russian troops were pushing through for more than two months to crush AFU's defense in the area.

Bogdan Khodakovsky, the commander of "Revenge" tactical group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote on Telegram that "the Russians succeeded" "and the loss of Chasiv Yar was getting closer."

"This heralds serious consequences for changing the operational map of the Donbass. The next stop is Konstantinovka. We must organize counter-offensive actions and retrieve the strategic positions,” Khodakovsky pointed out.

The Russian Armed Forces advance on the flanks of Chasiv Yar too.

Ukraine's loss of the city will lead to an operational breakthrough of the front, Ukrainian military expert, retired SBU Colonel Oleg Starikov said on the video blog of Ukrainian propagandist Alexander Shelest.

"Chasiv Yar is an operational direction. If the enemy goes through or we surrender it, this will lead to a crisis at the operational-tactical level,” he noted.

Breakthrough to New York identical to the breakthrough to Ocheretyne

There are two more "fortresses” on the way — Toretsk and Chasiv Yar, Ukrainian military blogger Konstantin Mashovets wrote on Telegram.

Advancing towards Toretsk (south of Chasiv Yar), the Russian troops managed to break through defenses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and advanced to the village of New York (Novgorodskoye) that covers Toretsk from the south.

"The southern part of the village of New York has probably been lost,” Mashovets added.

According to Russian military blogger Ruslan Tatarinov, the Russian Armed Forces took control of about one quarter of the settlement. If you look at the map, the breakthrough is very similar to what happened in Ocheretyne — the Russian forces wedged along the railway and highway. The village of Yuryevka and the Zheleznoye railway station were taken on the way. The advance was almost 4.5 kilometers deep and almost 2.5 square kilometers wide.

The Russian forces are on the offensive to Toretsk from Gorlovka. Russian soldiers secretly dug an underground tunnel three kilometers long to infiltrate the rear of enemy's large strongholds.

The Russian Armed Forces achieve key success in the summer campaign

Russia has achieved success in the key sector of the entire summer campaign to liberate the Donetsk People's Republic against the backdrop of unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the Russian Armed Forces from the central part of Volchansk in the Kharkiv region, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine had pulled reserves from other directions. The Kharkiv operation that Russia is conducting with limited forces has an important operational significance: the enemy could not curb the crisis at the front both in Ocheretyne and Chasiv Yar.