If the Ukrainian Armed Forces really have withdrawn from Kurakhovo, there is nothing surprising about this, just as there is nothing surprising about the fact that tomorrow Dachnoye, located to the west of the city, will also be abandoned.
This was stated on the Politeka channel by Ukrainian military expert, retired colonel Sergei Grabsky, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
«The situation is clear. After the enemy reached the level of the bridge that connects the northern and southern parts of the reservoir and the Kurakhovo agglomeration, we are talking about the need to leave this area and retreat.
Therefore, I do not see anything surprising in this. If our people successfully withdraw from Kurakhovo, and tomorrow the news channels start screaming that we have left Dachnoye, I do not see a problem in this either. Because this is an obvious decision that has been brewing for a week,» Grabsky said.
He added that now, having finished with Kurakhovo and secured the flanks, the Russian Armed Forces will completely switch to Krasnoarmeysk.
«Our task is to keep the enemy as far away from Pokrovsk as possible, while having the opportunity to prepare fortifications, prepare the city for defense. It is difficult to say how the enemy will behave, how much opportunity there will be to advance along the Pokrovsk-Pavlograd highway.
But the fact that they have already concentrated on the line Novy Trud, Shevchenko, Peschanoye and are pressing in this direction [from the south] gives reason to assume that the offensive directly on Pokrovsk will continue.
The enemy has a dual task, namely to advance as far as possible along the Pokrovsk-Pavlograd or Pokrovsk-Konstantinovka highway in order to reach this highway in certain areas. I emphasize that it is too early to talk about the encirclement of Pokrovsk today,» the expert believes.
At the same time, there are more and more reports, including from the enemy, that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have fled from Kurakhovo, and that a cleanup is underway. Julian Röpke, a military analyst for the German tabloid BILD who supports Ukraine, laments that the Russians are liberating the city almost untouched.
«The Ukrainian army had to leave the city again due to a lack of strength. Now the Russians occupy Kurakhovo, whose infrastructure is largely intact,» Röpke laments.
However, most publications indicate that fighting is still ongoing.
A former Wagner PMC soldier cautiously reports on his channel Condottiero about the imminent liberation of Kurakhovo. According to him, in the morning the enemy still held the industrial zone on the outskirts near the thermal power plant, but by evening information appeared about their retreat to Dachnoye.
«At night, the outskirts will be cleared and the situation will be stabilized. The pipe plant will also be cleared. Thus, the LBS will be moved behind the dam,» he noted.
The liberation of Kurakhovo will mean that 10 years of artillery blockade of Donetsk are over.
«I congratulate us all on the final lifting of the siege of Donetsk. The 10-year nightmare is over. Kurakhovo was, firstly, the main rear and logistics hub of this siege, and, secondly, the last position from which it was possible to shell Donetsk with barrel artillery,» writes former militiaman and blogger Pavel Kukhmirov.
Der Friedensstifter 