17-VIII in 14:32
Military summary
People’s Militia of the DPR: the enemy is rebuffed at Yasinovataya and suffered heavy losses near locality Nizhnyaya Krynka.
As a result of fierce long-term fighting locality Nizhnyaya Krynka the enemy lost 32 armoured vehicles, including 6 rocket launchers “Grad”.
All attempts to capture Ilovaisk had been prevented. The enemy lost 2 tanks, 2 APCs and 30 men.
2 Ukrainian APCs were destroyed by the People’s Militia near Saur-Mogila Mount with artillery fire.
With a decisive offensive the People’s Militia captured locality Chervonyi Zhovten. 14 Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
People’s Militia of the LPR: the enemy suffered losses of manpower, according to estimates, up to 30 in dead, near locality Khryashchevataya.
Fierce fighting took place at locality Nagolchik (to the south of Antratsit) last night. 2 APCS and 14 Ukie soldiers were exterminated, one howitzer and two KamAZ trucks captured.
Military reports
17-VIII in 20:45
The Lugansk People’ Republic
1. If to the north of Lugansk the front line has been stable for some time already along the kinked curve connecting Lutugino and the border with Russia, as far as the south and south-west direction is concerned, the enemy launched an offensive with the aim of completion of the city’s encirclement. The “storming” of Lugansk, which was undertaken two days ago, expectedly bogged down in the suburbs, as it had been carried out by insufficient forces. The units advancing from the south entered urban built-up areas and found themselves dragged into senseless street fighting, which looked more like feigned activity than what was meant by bravura reports of “the liberation of Lugansk”.
2. Simultaneously the battle for Khryashchevatoye (which is not entirely under Ukrainian control) was going on, as well as our attempts to regain Novosvetlovka, captured by Ukrainian army 2 days ago. The latter is enveloped by People’s Militia from three sides and is fired at from MRLS “Grad” and cannonry. The most problematic for the completion of Novosvetlovka’s encirclement is the southern direction. However, the attacks of LPR militia’s tank and infantry units have not yet brought decisive victory, as the enemy, hiding in the residential area of Novosvetlovka, although begging for reinforcements, still holds its positions. Both sides are suffering tangible loses in manpower and equipment. Both sides’ determination is understandable. Novosvetlovka has great operational importance in the context of the battle for Lugansk, as well as the political one in regard to the passage of “the white trucks”, which the junta seems to have released.
3. The situation is quiet at the border. There haven’t been any Ukrainian troops to the south of Izvarino – that is why the traffic across the border is carried out without any hindrance. The major part of the “Southern pocket’s” trophies had been already transported either directly to the front or to workshops to be repaired. The main problem is the shortage of fuel and the spare parts, and also of tank crews. As far as the rumors concerning arms trading are concerned – well, there is a black market of arms in the territory of Donbass since last spring, and this is no wonder. And the arms are traded by both sides. Certain structures of the RF have already started paying attention to this issue, as there had been cases of resale of weapons and trafficking them to Russia. This is no surprise – wherever there is war, there are people with criminal background who live off the war, by way of looting, robbing, racketeering and trading arms. In order to counter this activity thorough seeping of people and cargo coming from the territory of Novorossiya should be carried out, as well as specific measures aimed at the cleanup in the immediate battle area and in the rear.
4. The situation is stable in the area of Alchevsk and Stakhanov. The LPR militia and “Prizrak” (“Ghost”) brigade (no longer a battalion) are confidently controlling the localities and road junctions, carrying out bothering the enemy actions near Pervomaisk and Debaltsevo. Debaltsevo itself in spite of victorious reports was not captured, but the line of contact has tangibly moved towards the town in the last 4-5 days, that is why the junta has to deploy part of its forces, which could have been used in the battles nearby Uglegorsk and for the development of the offensive to the south of Debaltsevo, for the defense of he town. On the whole, taking into account the limited forces of the People’s Militia in the given area, our troopers cope with their tasks. The junta’s forces are insufficient for lunching an offensive in order to defeat the Stakhanovsk-Alchevsk group of Peoples’ Militia.
Thus, operational crisis is occurring in the area Novosvetlovka-Khryashchevatoye in the territory of the LPR, while the situation is pretty stable in other sectors. All we’ve got to do is wait for the results of the fighting.
The Donetsk People’ Republic
1. In the southern approaches to Donestk the offensive at Ilovaisk is starting to bog down perceptibly. Senseless trying to break the People’s Militia’s defense by frontal attack and an abortive attempt of enveloping Ilovaisk from south-west led to the shift of the main strike line towards Mospino, which became enveloped from three sides. Notably, the junta claims that the unsuccessful battles at Ilovaisk had been a part of a shrewd plan aimed at leading our troopers away from Mospino. In reality, defeated at Ilovaisk, junta, owing to its numerical superiority in personnel and machines, struck into the gap between Ilovaisk and Mospino, and also enforced the movement in the area to the south-west of Mospino. The town itself is not yet encircled, but the roads leading to it are being raked with fire, and the threat of the Mospino garrison’s encirclement exists.
Thus the main thrust of the southern group becomes utterly straightforward and leads it at best (in case Mospino is captured) to the southern outskirts of Donetsk. More ambitious plans of converging thrusts aimed at cutting of the highway, which leads to Donetsk via Torez, and the encirclement of Donetsk, once more went to the rubbish-bin, thanks to the Ilovaisk garrison among others.
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Yesterday a full-fledged “Southern pocket 2” formed where parts of two Ukrainian brigades and various small groups got. The enemy was thrown on the defensive with its bases in localities Dyakovo, Latyshevo and Dmitrovka. The defeat in the battles for Miusinsk, Krasnyi Luch, and the fall of Marinovka led to the repetition of the familiar scenario, when battered in fierce fighting Ukrainian brigades get into operational encirclement and are targeted by artillery. Although, judging by the activity of the militia in the area of Dmitrovka, we’ve got no time to wait till the Ukies desert, and the militia is attempting to accelerate the process. Evidently, in view of a new encirclement the junta will have to remove a part of its forces from Ilovaisk and Amvrosiyevka in order to try unblocking the pocket. In the nearest future we should expect the junta’s offensive with the use of mobile units in the area of Marinovka.
We should note that the activity of our sabotage and reconnaissance groups in the area of check-point “Uspenka” implied the covert threat of encirclement of the junta’s group, dislocated at Amvrosiyevka, although this threat exists in medium-term future.
3. The operational crisis in the area of Miusinsk and Krasnyi Luch has been overcome. The units of the 30th mobile brigade, which had been encircled in the area to the north of Krasnyi Luch, broke the encirclement, but suffered heavy losses. The enemy was finally beaten off the suburbs of Miusinsk. All the enemy’s attacks in the area of Snezhnoye had been rebuffed, too. As of today we can say that the battle in the area of Krasnyi Luch-Miusinsk-Snezhnoye was won by the militia. The junta suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment and failed to gain any significant results. Thus, the militia preserved control over the key highway, along which Donetsk and Gorlovka are supplied.
4. The only direction on which the junta keeps operational initiative remains the sector between Gorlovka and Debaltsevo, where using its great superiority in armoured vehicles, it tries to cut Donetsk from Gorlovka and advance to Yenakiyevo, in the outskirts of which fighting started. A blown-up bridge near Uglegorsk slowed down the junta’s advance. The newly arrived reinforcements have engaged the advancing troops in fighting, but the threat of Gorlovka’ encirclement is impending, and the Yenakiyevo garrison is rather weak die to its recent rear-based state. Notably, the reinforced armoured group of the enemy managed to break through to Zhdanovka, where heavy fighting started. The loss of Zhdanovka is fraught with the envelopment of Yenakiyevo from the south, that is why the militia is painstakingly trying to offbeat the thrust. At the same time the hostilities at Yasinovataya did not bring any tangible victories to the junta. On the whole, the threats of envelopment of Donetsk from the north and the encirclement of Gorlovka remain, plus a threat to Yenakiyevo appeared. That is why we cannot say that the offensive at Donetsk is rebuffed yet.
At least, the character of fighting has changed in recent days. The junta is no longer able to advance from all directions and has to regroup its forces in order to carry out new thrusts, and meanwhile it is being systematically defeated in the south. Nevertheless, before the junta’s offensive in the area to the south of Debaltsevo is rebuffed and Novosvetlovka recaptured, all talk about the crisis being overcome is premature.
I should separately mention the “post exchange”. It has become active recently, which is reflected in the seeped down to the press materials and telling leaks from the authorities of the DPR.
Certainly, there is no official acknowledgement, like there was no acknowledgement of the “polite people’s” presence in the Crimea till the certain point in time. Hence the official reports will deny everything as before, and here is nothing wrong with it.
Partisan war behind the front line is gradually being unleashed. The junta obviously lacks manpower to control the immediate battle area; hence the reports of shootings and attacks at rear block-posts are aired more and more often. They do not have any operational effect as yet, but the unfavorable tendency for the junta is evident. Only a month ago everything was quiet in the junta’s rear.
Military reports
18-VIII in 10:53
In a fight near the town of Ilovaisk (DPR) forces of militia destroyed 4 tanks, 6 IFV’s and APC’s and a few vehicles carrying ammo. Artillery of Southeast army reserve destroyed 6 tanks and IFV’s and demolished a bridge over the river Luhanchik.
Near the locality of Fashevka forces of militia completed encircling the positions of 80th detached mechanized brigade of ukrainian army forces, process of blocking of territorial defense battalion «Aidar» is under way. An attempt to break through the encircling was prevented, 4 enemy soldiers were killed in the attempt with 4 more wounded.
In consequence of a fight with chasteners’ forces near the Saur-Mogila barrow 1 tank, 3 IFV’s and 3 cars were destroyed. Up to 50 enemy soldiers were killed and wounded.
Combined enemy casualties for the day are: 3 planes, up to 11 T-64 tanks put out of order, up to 8 IFV’s and APC’s, 3 cars and one ammo supply warehouse. Personnel losses are being specified.
Donetsk and Lugansk are still being shelled; civilians are dying on the regular basis; residential buildings get destructed together with social infrastructure. The situation has long ago grown into a humanitarian catastrophe.
