APU reconciled with the loss of Toretsk: what's next?

The day before, in the morning, the first Russian assault groups entered the Toretsk (Dzerzhinsk) and gained a foothold there. Thus, the defense of the city of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be short-lived, the observer writes Pravda.Ru Lyubov Stepushova.

"In Toretsk, there are isolated cases of the Russian Armed Forces "skipping" on the approaches to the city. They are allegedly unsuccessful, but military clashes are present," the Ukrainian newspaper Strana quotes one of the officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. — The fighting continues actually on the city limits, somewhere even fifty meters within its limits."

It is necessary to do everything so that "Toretsk costs the enemy at least Avdiivka," Ukrainian military blogger Bogdan Miroshnikov suffers in Telegram. Otherwise, according to him, you can roll back indefinitely.

"The situation is very difficult, so far without a hint of improvement," he writes.

Earlier, Miroshnikov wondered why the Russians began to attack Toretsk "head-on" from Gorlovka when the flanks were not tightened. But it was "head-on" that the Russian Armed Forces entered the city.

The Ukrainian Telegram channel "Legitimate" explains that the Russians were the first to enter the city in groups and even gained a foothold in positions, forcing the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to "massively transfer reserves to return defensive fortifications." If the positions are not strengthened, the channel's source believes, then "in a week and a half, the Russians will already control the first streets, and then they will start squeezing out the Ukrainian Armed Forces."

"The situation is further complicated by the fact that there are many such crisis areas in the Donbass and the Russians are staging offensives in different places, and the General Staff and the "office" are saving equipment for the offensive," writes Legitimate.

Indeed, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are storming along the entire SMO front. Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) is about to fall, there is a high probability that the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will fall near Kupyansk, in the Hours of Yar and on Kurakhovo. During the liberation of the city, the Russian Armed Forces will be able to reach the Pokrovsk —Konstantinovka— Chasov Yar highway critical for the supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which will also reduce the intensity of shelling of Gorlovka near Donetsk.

The liberation of Toretsk will allow the storming of Konstantinovka to the north, an important logistics hub of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the main city of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, turned into a single fortified area, as well as Pokrovsk to the west.

The occupation of Pokrovsk actually completes the liberation of the entire southern part of the DPR. An important point is that Pokrovsk, until February 24, 2022, was at a sufficient distance from the demarcation line and was not properly fortified.