Abrams tank destroyed in Pokrovsk direction
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are still failing to slow down the pace of advance of the Russian army in the Pokrovsk direction. Ukrainian defense built after the fall of Avdeevka fortress was destroyed. Russian forces approach Selidovo and Mirnograd.
On August 27, the Russian Ministry of Defense officially confirmed control of the village of Orlovka. Meanwhile, both Russian and Ukrainian military sources declare the fall of more Ukrainian strongholds in the area.
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The Armed Forces of Ukraine retreated from the town of Novogrodovka, the Russian military is completing the mop up operation on the northern outskirts. The town came under Russian control after several days of fighting. Thanks to the rapid advance of Russian attack assault groups, without the massive use of aviation and artillery, the infrastructure was not ruined in the town.
According to preliminary reports by Ukrainian military sources, the villages of Nikolaevka, Marynivka and Memrik located nearby also came under Russian control. Russian advance was also reported west of Novogrodovka. Ukrainian servicemen attempted to hold defense on the territory of the local mine. The grouping deployed there failed to stop Russian advance on the flanks and was almost encircled.
NATO losses grow:
Thus, the last line of Ukrainian defense in front of Selidovo and Mirnograd is almost destroyed.
In the Mirnograd direction to the northwest, Russian forces are launching assault on the small village of Promin (Luch). There, the supply road to Grodovka, where the AFU are still fighting, will be cut off and Russian forces will approach the outskirts of Mirnograd.
To the south, the Ukrainian military is already threatened by Russian assault on Selidovo which may begin in the coming days.
At the same time, Russian forces are advancing in Karlovka, approaching the center of the settlement. They also took control of a wide area on the western shore of the water reservoir south of Kalinovo, threatening the Ukrainian grouping in Karlovka with encirclement from the north. According to preliminary reports, the Armed Forces of Ukraine began withdrawal from Karlovka to Galitsinovka located to the southwest.
Russian flag was raised in Kalinovo. The footage also confirms that Ukrainian forces retreat too fast and the settlements do not suffer the devastating damage like Ukrainian strongholds did before:
Russian offensive in the Pokrovsk direction may become the crushing blow to the Ukrainian military. Ukrainian forces lost control of the lines of defense with concrete fortifications reinforced during the decade of war in the Donbass. Rapidly retreating Ukrainian units have no time to build new lines of defense to stop Russian offensive. That’s why they are retreating to some larger settlements, hoping to grind the advancing Russian forces in urban battles; but as a result, they fail to hold control in the ruins for a long time.
The pace of Russian advance in the Donbass is growing thanks to the ongoing battles in the border area in the Kursk region, where the Ukrainian army is losing large reserves. It seems that the Ukrainian military may soon face a strategic defeat.
Even Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian army Sirsky admitted that the military operations in the Kursk region did not force the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to transfer forces from the Pokrovsk direction. Sirsky claimed that the Russian military is sending units from reserves and some other directions to reinforce defense in the Kursk region.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine actually admitted that the main goals of the operation in the Kursk region was to distract Russian forces from the offensive from the Pokrovsk and Kurakhovka directions, but the plan failed. Thus, the strategic goals and result of Ukrainian attacks on the Russian territory remain unclear and risk to turn into another defeat which costs Kiev lives of thousands of Ukrainians.
