by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] The Russian army is increasing the pace of its offensive in Donbass: fighting in the region continued without breaks for the holidays throughout the first week of 2025. Moreover, the beginning of January was almost the most difficult period for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the past two years.
The main success of the Russian troops was the liberation of the city of Kurakhovo, a large settlement west of Donetsk. The fighting for it lasted for several months, with Ukrainian troops trying in every way to prolong the battle by digging in residential areas. But at the end of December 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces left the city and consolidated their position in the area of ​​the Kurakhovskaya Thermal Power Plant, outside the city, trying to turn the industrial zone into a new defensive hub.
The editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian publication Censor.net, Yuriy Butusov, stated that the defense of the city was not planned properly, so the Ukrainian Armed Forces units had to fight in extremely difficult conditions. The only supply route for the Ukrainian garrison was constantly under fire control of Russian troops.
"Defense in such conditions is disadvantageous for us: the tactical advantage is on the enemy's side. We are losing people in battles with an enemy that has an overall superiority in forces," Butusov said.
In the battles for Kurakhovo, the Ukrainian Armed Forces command used the same strategy that had been previously tested in Severodonetsk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Ugledar and a number of other cities. When the defense of a city becomes inexpedient, the troops receive orders to prolong the fighting and hold out in ever-worsening conditions. Ultimately, this only leads to major losses and a forced retreat. The same thing happened in Kurakhovo, according to front-line sources at Regnum.
"In recent weeks, all this has become meaningless: defending the thermal power plant when they had already lost control of the city was simply pointless. According to rumors, they reported this to the command every day, but there was an order to hold on. Last week, they began to gradually retreat and suffered serious losses. They repeated the history of Ugledar, in general," the source notes.
According to observers from the Ukrainian analytical portal DeepState, the retreat from the city had a "very severe" effect on the morale of the units holding the defense. At the same time, the retreat had to be carried out under the blows of Russian aviation and artillery, which led to heavy losses, analysts note. In addition, the Ukrainian military is extremely negative about the reports of official speakers about "control over the city", which simply demoralize the personnel.
Indeed, officials in the military and political leadership of Ukraine are not commenting on the situation in the Kurakhovo area, even though the loss of control over the city creates serious problems for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Firstly, with the liberation of the city, Russian troops managed to push the front line almost 40 kilometers away from Donetsk, depriving the enemy of even a hypothetical opportunity to launch a counteroffensive on the capital of the DPR.
Secondly, the liberation of Kurakhovo opens up the possibility for Russian troops to launch a strategic offensive to the west. The Russian Armed Forces can advance in the direction of the settlements of Bogatyr and Velyka Novosyolka and create a bridgehead for an offensive on the Zaporizhia region along the Zaporizhia-Donetsk highway.
However, the problems for the enemy do not end there.
DIRECTION - TO POKROVSK
While the advance of the Russian army in the Kurakhovo area generally fits into the logic of military operations and does not yet pose a strategic threat to Ukrainian defense, in the Pokrovsk area the situation is getting out of control for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russian troops have liberated the settlements of Dachenskoye, Novy Trud and Volkovo near this city. The Russian army is also advancing in the area of ​​the settlements of Zelenoe, Vozdvizhenka, Novovasilyevka, Yantarnoye and Solntsevka.
In turn, German military expert Julian Röpke reports that the Russian army has liberated eight settlements south of Pokrovsk and continues its offensive, bypassing the city. Due to a lack of reserves, the Ukrainian Armed Forces cannot stop the offensive and are constantly rolling back.
According to the expert, in a few weeks the fighting may spread to the Dnepropetrovsk region, to the borders of which the Russian army has about seven kilometers to go. However, it is unlikely that the neighboring region can be considered the target of the offensive, while there remains a powerful enemy defense node in Pokrovsk in the rear.
"The pace of the offensive has been growing lately, that's a fact. And the enemy either barely resists, or counterattacks, but only locally. And mostly rolls back. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have a very low morale, there is almost no rotation, so our pace of advance has accelerated. But the fighting continues, the enemy will not disappear on its own. In order to advance further, we need to take Pokrovsk," notes the interlocutor of IA Regnum.
As in previous weeks, the key task in the Pokrovsk direction remains the consistent cutting of supply routes for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the encirclement of the city. As of January 9, Russian troops are several kilometers from the Pokrovsk-Mezhevaya highway and approximately ten kilometers from the M-30 highway, which connects Pokrovsk with Pavlograd and the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
At the same time, the Ukrainian troops fighting in the Pokrovsk direction are left without reserves. All combat-ready reinforcements are sent to the Kursk region, where Kyiv again and again throws troops into suicidal attacks.
CEMETERY OF THE UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES RESERVES
Against the backdrop of defeats in Donbass, the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Command in other areas are, to put it mildly, puzzling. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army not only exposed the front in the area of ​​Pokrovsk and Kurakhovo, leaving it without reinforcements, but also withdrew some forces from other areas in Donbass and transferred them to the Kursk region.
The 47th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was spotted in the Sudzha area, which had previously fought in the Avdiivka, Novogrodovka and Toretsk areas. The brigade suffered heavy losses, but instead of being rotated, it was given a new direction.
Units of the 47th Brigade were involved on January 5 in a counterattack by the enemy in the area of ​​the settlements of Berdin and Bolshoye Soldatskoye. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, as a result, the enemy lost up to 150 people and a large number of armored vehicles. In total, during the military actions in the Kursk Region, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost about 300 tanks, more than 200 infantry fighting vehicles and 160 armored personnel carriers, the department added.
Attempts to advance further deprive Kyiv not only of its last human reserves, but also of the armored vehicles supplied by NATO countries. Such wastefulness looks especially strange against the backdrop of rumors that the new US administration may stop military support for Ukraine altogether.
The day before, the Pentagon announced the formation of the latest military aid package worth $500 million. The remaining $3.8 billion, previously approved by Congress, will be transferred to the Trump administration. Earlier, the US president-elect refused to answer the question of whether his administration would continue to provide military aid to Ukraine.
Thus, the military and political leadership of Ukraine is gradually depriving itself of the last opportunity to change the situation at the front in its favor. Meanwhile, the situation in Donbass is finally getting out of Kyiv's control, which creates an opportunity for the Russian army to completely liberate the region.