How rapidly can Russian troops advance in Ukraine's Donetsk region?

Dmytro Sniehyriov, a military expert and co-chairman of the Prava Sprava NGO, spoke about this on Espreso TV. 

“Currently, the Russians are solving the issue of reaching the administrative borders of Donetsk region. And they have been unsuccessfully solving it for a year of the Russian offensive. Let me remind you that the offensive has been going on since October 2023, not since May 2024. So, the maximum advance of the Russians during the year of the Russian offensive is the corresponding preconditions for tactical success, a larger number of personnel, total enemy air superiority, and most importantly, the firepower coefficient, which, unfortunately, is in favor of the occupiers. So, despite all these factors, as well as the corresponding delay in military and technical assistance from our partners, the maximum advance of the Russians is 900 square kilometers in the Donetsk region. The issue of getting to the borders of Donetsk region has not been resolved,” he said. 

Sniehyriov believes that it will be difficult for Russian troops to advance.

“The Russians have quite serious defense lines of the Ukrainian Defense Forces ahead. We are talking about the Pokrovsk agglomeration, respectively, the Sloviansk and Kramatorsk agglomerations, which are large industrial cities. And even though the Russians are currently using flanking tactics and the so-called 'small cauldron' tactics, meaning that they are not engaging in assault operations directly in urban areas, we can say that further Russian advance in these industrial cities will take a rather serious period of time. Unless, again, there is an unclear nature of the rotations of the Ukrainian personnel, which, by a strange coincidence, will become known to the Russian occupiers. Unfortunately, a similar situation occurred during the battles for Avdiivka, Vuhledar and other problematic areas of the front, which led to the Russian tactical successes,” he emphasized.

• On October 22, it was reported that Russian forces were ramping up their efforts to capture Kurakhove in the Donetsk region.
• On October 23, it became known that the Russian army had captured the village of Novosadove in the Donetsk region over the past day. This is the second occupation of the village since 2022.