After the fall of these settlements, the battle for Donbass will also end.
Military experts and analysts, as well as in some cases active military personnel, note that the battle for Donbass will end with a victory for the Russian Armed Forces no sooner than after control over the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration is established. It is not difficult to explain why everything is tied to these settlements: these are the last large cities in Donbass under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Over the past ten years, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk have been turned into fortresses, so their imminent capture, as you understand, is out of the question. Nevertheless, the process is underway, and today the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost the first line of fortifications in the area of this agglomeration. At least, this is what the commander of the Chechen special forces “Akhmat” Major General Apti Alaudinov has stated.
According to Alaudinov, the first line of fortifications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this area has been lost to them, and now the Russian Armed Forces can maneuver in different directions, dislodging the opponent from long-held positions. In general, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have serious defenses, and there is no option for bypassing them.
Let us recall that Russia has included the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions in its composition in their full administrative borders, which means that the special military operation cannot be completed, purely legally, until its sovereignty is established over the entire territory of Russia. Simply put, either Ukraine will hand over control over the said regions within the framework of a political and diplomatic settlement, or it will have to be established by military means. There is no third option here.
