Entire Donetsk region is under Russian military pressure – former regional governor Zhebrivskyi

He said this on Espreso TV. 

“In fact, the entire Donetsk region is under pressure from the Russian Armed Forces. Let's start with Vuhledar, where from time to time the Russians still enter Mykilski Dachi and try to 'hover' over the town. However, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have heavily mined the area around Vuhledar. To date, the enemy has not been successful. There is already confirmation that 130 enemy armored vehicles have been destroyed. The enemy has also lost quite a lot of personnel,” the former head of the Donetsk Military Civilian Administration said. 

Pavlo Zhebrivskyi added that the enemy continues to amass forces and equipment in Mariupol, and according to various estimates, there may be about 30,000 Russian troops there, who may move towards Huliaipole and Orikhove or continue the assault on Vuhledar.

“In Mariinka, unfortunately, almost the entire private sector is under the control of the occupiers. They have partially entered high-rise buildings, but our paratroopers are giving the enemy a decent fight back there. Therefore, the enemy is trying to push towards Mariinka through the village of Peremoha. Ukrainian forces are doing a good job of defense and sometimes pushing the enemy out of Mariinka. There are more positional battles with elements of close combat in the areas of construction,” the president of Combat Brotherhood of Ukraine military-civilian union said. 

As for Avdiivka, the area is sufficiently fortified and the line of defense is holding, because the system of engineering works has been well done over these 9 years of war, so the enemy cannot do anything to the Avdiivka garrison. The enemy is trying to enter through Opytne and Vodiane, and there are artillery duels with less close combat.

“The situation is most tense in Bakhmut. The Russians cannot take this city head-on, they have entered Krasna Hora and are sitting on the Bakhmut-Sloviansk highway, having actually taken it under fire control, and are getting closer to reaching this highway. There has been no supply to the Bakhmut garrison along this route for quite some time, it is now a secondary road, so the enemy is not able to do anything here. However, the enemy is making attempts to advance and enter this road to occupy the dominant heights there, maintain fire control, and encircle Bakhmut. The enemy is trying to reach the second road Bakhmut-Kostiantynivka by shelling Chasiv Yar,” the former Donetsk regional governor noted. 

• On February 12, a report by the Institute for the Study of War noted that the Russian troops' failure near Vuhledar weakened Russians' faith in their ability to launch a large-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine.

• On February 13, SBU Colonel Roman Kostenko reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces defeated a large column of the invading Russian forces near Vuhledar.