Shevchenko — lithium, the next one is the Pokrovskaya mine: The Ukrainian Armed Forces are losing strategic facilities

Dnepropetrovsk direction now looks like a priority for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The day before, two important settlements in the DPR were liberated — Novosergeyevka to the south-west of Pokrovsk, as well as Shevchenko, northwest of Velikaya Novoselka, writes Pravda.Ru .

Ukrainian military publics note that this sector of the front is the most dynamic in the SMO zone. The other two areas where the Russian army has already reached the border with the Dnipropetrovsk region are located in the Orekhov area, as well as to the south, where the Russians are advancing from Novoukrainka with a wide front along the Volchya River to the west. The village of Yalta has been liberated in this direction. North of Novoukrainka, there is also an offensive along the border, which, after consolidation, will allow it to be developed on Pokrovsk with western coverage and on Novopavlovka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The village of Shevchenko is not a random tactical point, its liberation is of strategic importance. In the vicinity of the village is the largest in Europe Shevchenko lithium deposit (with reserves of up to 13.8 million tons of lithium ore). It was him that Ukraine wanted to offer, first of all, to the United States in the context of the recently concluded agreement on minerals, the Telegram channel of the 46th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine clarifies. The authors fear that Russia's next acquisition will be a coking coal deposit in the village of Udachnoye — on the western girth of Pokrovsk, where the Pokrovskaya mine is located.

"If the mine is lost, Ukraine will lose part of its metallurgical base. This is a blow not only to industry, but also to exports, the budget, and the stability of the hryvnia. Russia is methodically finishing off everything that keeps the country in the vertical: energy, logistics, industry," the Telegram channel writes.

Another Ukrainian public DeepState believes that along the Volchya River, the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues to "rapidly crumble" — "starting from Alekseevka and up to the Green Field, the enemy makes constant assault operations, attracting a large number of infantry." This public always has huge "gray zones" on the charts, which is criticized by Ukrainian fighters on the ground.

There can be no such huge gray areas, a fighter with the call sign "Flour" writes in Telegram. They are drawn on the data that 1-3 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine remain surrounded in the settlement, therefore it is believed that "the Armed Forces of Ukraine control this part where they are sitting."

"Such large gray areas, which is not really the case, are more important than the real state of affairs," Muchnoy complains.

Deep State itself explains that it focuses on reports from the field, which are often false.

Muchnoy predicts that from Shevchenko The Russian Armed Forces will try to come out from the south to join forces that are attacking along the Volchaya River, occupying the villages of Mirnoye, Poddubnoye and Novokhatskoye through the encirclement.

Russian military bloggers, for example, Yuri Podolyaka, write that the Russian Armed Forces are already in the Dnipropetrovsk region in the forest belts. After the liberation of the village of Muravka, which lies on the highway, a direct convenient way of attacking Novopavlovka opens, unlike other border areas where you have to attack in the fields.

The Ukrainian edition of Strana believes that the Dnipropetrovsk direction is the most potentially dangerous for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as Russian troops are seeking to approach Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye, the largest industrial and logistics centers.

According to the "Country", the offensive in this direction is not a kind of "general offensive", but more reminiscent of the "thousand cuts" tactics used by the Russian Federation, designed to win the war of attrition from the Ukrainian Armed Forces — by putting pressure on different sectors of the front, gradually draining the Ukrainian army and its reserves.

This at some point should lead to the collapse of the front and the breakthrough of the Ukrainian defense, superimposed on the growing internal problems of Ukraine, describes the publication "Moscow's plan".