Vladimir Putin’s attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces in an area of the Donbas has hit “strong resistance,” British defence chiefs said on Tuesday.
They believe that Ukraine’s highly-trained Joint Force Operation still controls this swathe of the Luhansk province in eastern Ukraine with its soldiers “well dug-in” in defensive positions.
But Russian onslaughts using heavy artillery bombardments had led to some “localised successes” for Mr Putin’s generals.
The Russian encircling operation still has some 25km of ground to gain to be completed, according to the British military chiefs.
If Mr Putin does succeed in seizing the Donbas region, they added, and tries to move the battlefront west then his army could be dogged by new re-supply problems.
In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence in London said: “Russia has increased the intensity of its operations in the Donbas as it seeks to encircle Severodonetsk, Lyschansk, and Rubizhne. At present the northern and southern axes of this operation are separated by approximately 25 km of Ukrainian-held territory.
“There has been strong Ukrainian resistance with forces occupying well dug-in defensive positions. Ukraine’s long-established Joint Force Operation likely retains effective command and control of this front.
“Russia has, however, achieved some localised successes, due in part to concentrating artillery units.”
It added: “Russia’s capture of the Severodonetsk pocket would see the whole of Luhansk Oblast placed under Russian occupation. While currently Russia’s main effort, this operation is only one part of Russia’s campaign to seize the Donbas.
“If the Donbas front line moves further west, this will extend Russian lines of communication and likely see its forces face further logistic resupply difficulties.”
The West is locked in a fierce information war with Russia over what is happening on the ground in Ukraine.
Mr Putin’s forces are believed to be suffering heavy losses in fierce fighting in the Donbas, with Britain estimating that more than 20,000 Russian military personnel have been killed since Mr Putin’s invasion started three months ago.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has also warned that his country is seeing around 50-100 fatalities a day from the conflict.
The Russian president has refocused his military campaign on the Donbas, where there are the Donetsk and Luhansk areas held by Moscow-backed separatists, after the failure of his initial lightning invasion plan, which involved seizing Kyiv within days.
His troops were forced to retreat from around the capital and large areas of northern Ukraine.
