Makarivka is not encircled: military expert Zgurets’ debunks frontline myths

He shared the information on Espreso TV.

"The Russian-Ukrainian war has a new dimension, particularly due to the excessive openness brought about by the widespread use of social media. No war or conflict before the Russo-Ukrainian war had such significant OSINT analytics and information components. Now, for roughly $30, one can purchase access to certain areas of the front or satellite data and analyze social media. This allows the creation of a battlefield picture, which is what both our and Russian OSINT analysts are doing. On one hand, understanding what is happening on the battlefield has become quite transparent. However, the actual situation on each section of the front depends on how the troops are fighting there, what forces are concentrated, and what positions specific units hold on each section of the front," explained Zgurets.

The analyst noted that Makarivka was not actually surrounded, and Ukrainian units had been withdrawn from there in advance. He emphasized that often, information appearing in the public domain does not reflect the actual situation on the battlefield.

"When talking about the DeepState scandal, it was about the settlements of Makarivka and Novosilka. On the DeepState map, it was shown that Makaryvka was indeed surrounded. Then there was an explanation from people commenting on the situation. According to them, Russian forces are indeed operating in groups, and the encirclement of Ukrainian units never actually happened. Our units were withdrawn from there. However, the information space was shaped by the DeepState map. Sometimes, we fall into the traps of such information fields, which often do not match the real situation on the battlefield," he added.

• On December 20, it was reported that Russian forces were attempting to bypass Vremivka from the west to block the Ukrainian Armed Forces' routes and encircle Makarivka.
• Since the start of December 26, 217 combat clashes were registered on the Russian-Ukrainian front. Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions 57 times in the Pokrovsk sector.
• The OSINT project DeepState reported that as of Monday, December 23, there are no encircled Ukrainian Armed Forces units in Makarivka, Donetsk region.