NewsWorldThe theater revives

The theater revives

Moving towards spring, combative efforts are invigorated. In the Donbass, the center of gravity of the operations since the end of 2022, the Russian troops, swelled their ranks with the incorporation of new combatants, coming from the mobilization of reservists and ordinary recruitment, have been carrying out, since the end of January, robust attacks reconnaissance to the west, along the Soledar-Bajmut-Donetsk-Avdivka-Marinka-Vuhledar line. They are probably trying to identify the most sensitive Ukrainian points – strengths and vulnerabilities – in the approximately 120 kilometers of that front line. Such attacks could confirm the proximity of the announced “spring offensive”. Although it cannot be ruled out that it was a Russian decoy to try to progress on other fronts. In any case, the Ukrainian troops are resisting bravely entrenched on that line with no apparent intention, for the moment, of going on the offensive. Two weeks after the first year of the contest, the scenario looks like a ‘dejà vu’. Moscow is once again in a hurry to favorably resolve the conflict, trying to finish off the presence of its troops throughout the Donbass. For this, it is imperative to penetrate the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka-Artemivsk (Bajmut) trapeze. Area of ​​land that, in the article ‘Growing value of Artemivsk (Bakhmut)’, on May 25, 2022, already described as being of “vital importance” and where “the great battle of Donbass will be decided which, if successful for the Russian troops, would open the door to the possibility of a subsequent penetration towards the bend of the Nieper (Dnipropetrovsk-Zaporizhia)”. kyiv, for its part, has returned to the strategy of resisting at all costs on the ground, both to deny such a penetration of Russian troops, and to wear them down and allow time for the arrival of new weapons. After the heavy battle tanks, consignments of more powerful weapons are announced than those so far transferred, such as North American glide bombs (GLSDB), which will double the range of current artillery pieces. The ‘escalation’ path seems to widen again. To confirm this, we will have to wait for the meeting of the Contact Group for assistance to Ukraine, which is scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on February 14-15. ABOUT THE AUTHOR PEDRO PITARCH The author is a retired lieutenant general of the Army. He was head of the Eurocorps and the Land Force and general director of Defense Policy in the Zapatero government. He was the head of the Military Strategy and Cooperation Division of the Defense General Staff, as well as the Logistics Division of the NATO Supreme Command.

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