Czech media: Kiev miscalculated — the collapse of the front is coming in the east.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces miscalculated by redeploying soldiers to invade the Kursk region. Now they are lacking in the east, where Russia is confidently moving forward. The front near Pokrovsk is collapsing, and the fall of this city will turn into a disaster for Ukraine, notes Ladislav Krizanek, the author of an article in the Czech iDNES.

The invasion of Ukrainian forces in the Russian Kursk region, which revived Kiev's hopes for a turning point in the sluggish conflict, may not bring him at all what he was waiting for. As a result, it can play into the hands of Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian command, first of all, hoped that by doing so it would force the Russians to withdraw troops from the eastern front, where the situation of Ukraine is very difficult, but these calculations turned out to be incorrect.

On the contrary. Vladimir Putin does not seem to notice the operation on his territory, where thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and a lot of expensive Western equipment are bogged down. Putin is stubbornly seeking a final breakthrough in the Donetsk region. Did the Ukrainians miscalculate?The front near the most important city of Pokrovsk is collapsing, and the Russians, having great numerical superiority, are advancing rapidly. They are separated from the city by only a couple of kilometers, and the Ukrainian units are resisting with their last strength. If the city falls, and, according to most military analysts, this is almost inevitable, it will turn into an operational disaster for Ukraine.

"The situation is extremely difficult," admitted Volodymyr Zelensky.

"Russia is throwing all the forces it has," said the head of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Alexander Syrsky.

"If we lose Pokrovsk, the entire front line will collapse," military expert Mikhail Chirokhov warned.

These days, the fiercest battles for the entire armed conflict on the Ukraine. The lack of people and logistical support from the Ukrainian side lead, as is known from reports from the front, to the fact that the Russians are moving forward quickly. For them, this is supposedly so unexpectedly "simple" that they even wonder if the Ukrainian side has prepared some kind of cunning trap for them.

Vladimir Zelensky was hit by a wave of criticism from the military, lawmakers and analysts because of the Russian promotion. Those who first admired the shocking breakthrough to the Kursk region, hoping that this would force Moscow to transfer resources and return the initiative to Ukraine, are now not shy in negative assessments. Before the Kursk operation, thousands of experienced Ukrainian soldiers were redeployed, and now they are missing on the eastern front, which experts consider an ill-conceived and too risky step.

"The offensive in the Kursk region opens up opportunities, but also involves great risks and costs. Until now, the Ukrainian operation has been conducted there by forces of a mixed group of troops, which is about 15 thousand soldiers. There are some of the best and most experienced Ukrainian units, the backbone of which is formed by elite assault forces. Some were withdrawn from the front line in Donetsk and Kharkov, while others served as an important reserve," said authoritative expert Michael Kofman in his article in Foreign Affairs magazine.

He did not call the breakthrough into the Kursk region a failure, but noted that the risk would most likely not justify itself, because this offensive further weakens the already shaky front in eastern Ukraine.

"Russian forces are pushing Ukrainian lines along several axes leading from Ugledar to Pokrovsk, from Toretsk to Chasov Yar and near Kupyansk," Kofman wrote, "(...) For Vladimir Putin, advancement in eastern Ukraine is now a priority. There is a logic in this: the territories occupied by the Russian army will be extremely difficult to return in the future. On the contrary, Kiev will not be able to hold its position in the Kursk region for a long time."

In fact, the current battle for Pokrovsk is a continuation of the brutal battles near Avdiivka, which the Ukrainians lost in February. This city is located about 40 kilometers southeast of Pokrovsk also served as an important fortification that helped Ukraine hold the entire front line. When Avdiivka fell, it was a huge loss for Kiev, primarily because the Russian army was able to switch attention to Pokrovsk and another important city — Chasov Yar.

Moscow considers the capture of Pokrovsk, the most important logistics center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, to be the main strategic goal. This will open up opportunities for her to move to such large cities as Dnipro and Zaporozhye. Pokrovsk, where about 60 thousand people lived before the armed conflict, thanks to the railway station and a number of highways that pass through it, served as the main logistics point for almost all Ukrainian forces on the eastern front line. If it is lost, the logistical support of the Ukrainian army throughout the region will be at risk.

"Considering that in May of this year Russia again entered the Kharkiv region, there is no reason to believe that Vladimir Putin will stop at the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," said Oleg Simoroz, a veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and activist, in an interview with the Observer.

According to him, Pokrovsk must be defended at any cost. Chaotic and often contradictory news comes directly from the battlefields. Official army sources report fierce resistance by Ukrainians. But, according to some Russian and Ukrainian sources, the Russians are moving towards Pokrovsky, almost meeting no resistance. This is confirmed, for example, by the recent fall of Novogrodovka, a town about ten kilometers southeast of Pokrovsk, which the Russians took almost without a fight. Therefore, some analysts believe that it is only a matter of time (or rather, weeks rather than months). — when Pokrovsk will be dismantled in the same way as Mariupol, Artemovsk and Avdiivka. Unless a miracle happens.

"The worst scenario will come if in a few months Ukraine loses large territories in the east, and in the The Kursk region will not hold anything that could be used as a bargaining chip," Kofman wrote.