This enables them to make incremental measured gains, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces are instead focusing on smaller areas in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
The ISW said in its latest campaign analysis: “Russian forces are likely attempting to achieve several simultaneous encirclements of small pockets of Ukrainian forces in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts: the broader Severodonetsk area (including Rubizhne and Lysychansk), Bakhmut-Lysychansk, around Zolote (just northeast of Popasna), and around Ukrainian fortifications in Avdiivka”.
Although they begin advancing efforts in these different encirclements daily, Russian forces “haven’t achieved any major ‘breakthroughs’ or made major progress towards their stated objectives of securing the Donetsk Oblast borders or seizing all of Donbas”, the institute added.
Russian forces may have secured more terrain in the past week than earlier in May, but they have done so by...
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