Russian Troops Suspended Offensive Deep into Ukraine - Butusov

The Russian offensive has achieved quite limited results.

Censor.NET editor-in-chief Yurii Butusov writes about it on his Facebook page:

"Russian troops have suspended the offensive deep into Ukraine. Active fighting continues only on the northern front in Luhansk region. The Ukrainian command here has committed the same mistake as in the south - the order to retreat was given too late, now the retreat continues, facing strong enemy's action. It is a matter of concern whether the Ukrainian command will organize this maneuver intelligibly and smoothly, without losing equipment and transportation means. Nevertheless, in general, our troops leave the enemy behind and stabilize the new front line - unfortunately, we continue to suffer heavy losses," the journalist said.

According to him, the main problem is creation of assault groups and organization of active defense for the new frontiers. Definitely, we need to keep the southern front areas of Mariupol, Volnovakha, Kurakhove, Artemivsk.

"The Russian offensive has quite achieved limited results. The enemy has eliminated our ability to quickly capture Donetsk and Luhansk, which extremely worried him over the last month. Ukrainian troops that were besieging Luhansk and Donetsk suffered a serious defeat, as well as troops of the D sector, which were covering the state border and held hopeless positions near Amvrosiivka-Savur-Mohyla-Torez-Shahtarsk under massive artillery fire . Unfortunately, the opportunities to concentrate all forces and seize Donetsk have been overlooked by the Ukrainian command," Butusov said.

He also notes that without support of Russian troops, the terrorist gangs DPR and LPR lose combat effectiveness.

"Russian mercenaries without artillery support and military vehicles of the Russian Federation can not conduct offensive operations. However, they capture the cities and villages, which are retained by the Ukrainian military without resistance after the Ukrainian command lost control over the situation. Overall, however, it is clear that there is an operational pause at the front. Russian command did not reach its strategic goal - the complete collapse of Ukrainian resistance in Donbas. They have faced heroic resistance of Ukrainian troops, even under conditions of complete encirclement near Ilovaiska and Luhansk. Putin's next stage of escalation of the war in Donbas has failed. But Russia will not stop and will continue to undermine the situation. Yet it is likely that Ukraine will have some time to reorganize their defense system," Butusov wrote.

"I suppose that this week will some attempts of peace talks on the situation in the Donbass will be held not only at the highest level, but also at the regional one, with a view to achieve a temporary ceasefire and to overcome the humanitarian disaster, as well as for the exchange of prisoners. This pause should not lay us back. The pause may be short. We need urgent replacement of the Ukrainian command and the Defense Minister and urgent measures to strengthen combat effectiveness. We need to organize good military training, bearing in mind on a long military conflict. It is necessary to form and train operational reserves and educate new sergeants and junior officers. And we need to complete their combat equipment," Butusov sums up.