Mercouris: AFU forced to retreat from open terrain into towns in Donbass
Ukrainian troops are forced to retreat from open terrain in the southern and central Donbass and withdraw into populated areas, British expert Alexander Mercouris said on the air of YouTube channel Duran.
‘The Russians can cut off Ukrainian units that are forced to retreat into towns to defend themselves because they are not strong enough to defend themselves in open terrain,’ he said.
According to the expert, one of the fundamental problems the Ukrainians have now is that their troops in the Central and Southern Donbass are now so overstretched that they cannot hold positions between cities and towns. Mercouris added that they are unable to build fortifications in these areas and this gives the Russian army the opportunity to manoeuvre.
‘We see this all over southern and central Donbass, as well as in and around Zaporozhye and Kherson, the Ukrainian resistance is rapidly weakening,’ he concluded.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported the liberation of Ugledar on 3 October. This town was the last major stronghold of the AFU in the South Donetsk direction. Now the Russian troops will be able to attack Velikaya Novoselka on the border with Zaporizhzhya region and Kurakhovo, where the enemy has equipped powerful lines of defence. In addition, the liberation of Ugledar has completely secured the Donetsk-Mariupol motorway and put Volnovakha out of harm’s way.
The Russian military is actively advancing in Donbass. As Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel, they managed to liberate almost a thousand square kilometres of territory in August and the first week of September. At the same time, the enemy is losing up to two thousand people killed and wounded per day.
