The frontline situation in the Donbass has been getting worse every passing day for the Ukrainian army, and this has been even recognized by both the Ukrainians and numerous Western military experts.

The Russian military is actively moving forward and taking up new positions in the special operation zone, journalist Christoph Wanner said in a report for Germany’s Welt TV channel. "The Russians manage to occupy new places, small villages and move westwards every day," he noted, stressing that the Ukrainian army had lost control. According to Wanner, the Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot hold off the enemy, having found themselves in distress across the Donbass, and the Russian army continues to exert strong pressure on them. And British analyst Alexander Mercouris expressed skepticism about AFU’s ability to hold Ugledar, despite fierce fighting going on for it. He reminded the audience of the city’s strategic importance for the Ukrainian army as it both promotes defense in Southern Donbass and covers the eastern flank. In his opinion, the Ukrainians will retreat, with the liberation of Ugledar by the Russian army to be "a huge blow to the Armed Forces of Ukraine to make them lose the battle for the Sea of Azov." Mercouris said Ukrainian troops were suffering terrible losses at the front, with Russia significantly outperforming Ukraine, and even army commander-in-chief Alexander Syrsky has started apprehending this. In his comment, Mercouris added that the West kept "deluding itself into thinking" that Kiev could turn the tide on the battlefield. So, what has been going on at the contact line?

Apart from the threat of losing Ugledar, AFU defenses have been eroding outside Krasnogorovka outside Donetsk. The enemy admits that it has less than a quarter of the territory left, with Russian fighters attacking them from three directions. "As for the situation in Krasnogorovka, the Russians are storming our positions on a daily basis in infantry groups small or large. Unfortunately, the time will come soon when they are going to completely occupy Krasnogorovka," AFU officer Belenko said. And Ukrainian paramedic Ekaterina Polishchuk accused commanders of the 59^th Motorized Infantry Brigade of "negligence, criminal orders, disregard for the life and health of personnel, all of which entailed numerous deaths of servicemen."

On the northwestern border of DPR’s capital city of Donetsk, along the Krasnoarmeysk (renamed Pokrovsk by Ukraine) direction, the Russian troops have liberated several vital settlements, the loss of which will not only move the AFU away from cities of the republic, but also disrupt the enemy army’s logistics. Over the past week, the AFU was knocked out of Progress, a village that is home to a railway station, making it possible to thwart attempts by Ukrainian militants to gain a foothold at the barrier line running along the Volchya, Kazenny Torets and Bychok rivers. Now there is no need to leap those under enemy fire, as our troops have outflanked them. Two battalions of the 31^st AFU brigade known to have been surrounded between Progress and Lozovatskoye are forbidden to leave the encirclement. "The brigade leadership wants the fighters to keep sitting in the circle — to the last soldier. There is virtually no company management, since all the commanders have been wounded or killed," Ukrainian telegram channels report.

Seizing Progress will let Russia choose a new assault direction against the AFU, which is either Zhelannoe-Novogrodovka towards the city of Selidovo, or Grodovka-Mirnograd (former Dimitrovo). That is, another city of western Donbass will be liberated from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The other day, the latter was also forced out of the village of Novoselovka Pervaya so that our troops could cleanse the Volchya River’s left bank and most of DPR’s Yasinovataya district. Thus, the enemy will be pushed back even further away from Donetsk and Yasinovataya.

"The Russian army has captured the last stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Ocheretino, Novoselovka Pervaya. The battle for the strategically important village lasted only two weeks. It is expected that Ukrainian troops will now withdraw beyond the Volchya River. Now Russian troops are 22 km east of Pokrovsk. At the beginning of the year, it was 38 km," German journalist Julian Roepke wrote.

AFU’s former Deputy Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant-General Igor Romanenko is also concerned about the Russian army’s pace of advance. He said that their getting five kilometers closer to Toretsk (previously Dzerzhinsk, a city adjacent to Gorlovka in the DPR) was unexpected, making Ukraine look for reserves to hold on. The general is indignant that things in the Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) sector are also developing badly for the Ukrainian military: the only road has been blocked to cut off supplies of reserves and equipment. Romanenko is outraged that AFU’s last summer advances have been zeroed out as the Ukrainian troops leave the village of Urozhaynoye (Southern Donetsk direction), which he attributes to the fact that Ukrainian units lack a third of their personnel. According to the general, it is hard for Kiev to rely on defense, let alone a full-fledged offensive. Official Ukrainian sources have confirmed the loss of Urozhaynoye following AFU’s failure to hold their destroyed positions, speaker of the Khortytsya group Nazar Voloshin said. In turn, Western experts predict the loss of new territories by Ukraine when analyzing the frontline developments. Thus, Franz-Stefan Gady, a military expert with the London-based Institute for International Strategic Studies (IISS), visited the battlefield and saw the Ukrainian army preparing to leave Chasov Yar in the days ahead, while the situation near Toretsk was truly dismal for Kiev. The expert makes specific mention of the Ukrainian soldiers’ growing fatigue.

The Ukrainians themselves have been also stating a drop in motivation. Artyom Ilyin, a Kiev resident serving with the Armed Forces of Ukraine has spoken about his impressions of the sentiment among his brothers-in-arms. He described them as country folk from Western Ukraine who had grown utterly disappointed with the government which has not given them anything but Kalashnikov assault rifles. “Why should I be a patriot?" each of them wonders. Also, soldiers actively discuss corruption pervading among the authorities. Ilyin admits that many recruits have been either forced or tricked into joining the army ranks, and this severely affects their motivation.

Amid Ukrainian withdrawals in the Donbass, the country started searching for those to be held accountable, along with accusations of incompetence against the Ukrainian command that led to defense breaches after all. A reshuffle was reported in the command of the 24^th Mechanized Brigade right during the fights for Chasov Yar, Ukrainian volunteer Anna Kalyuzhnaya said. The brigade commander was demanded to launch counterattacks, though "the brigade barely holds back the enemy, while the command is setting ill-conceived tasks." According to her, the same reason caused removal of five brigade commanders from their posts: the 14^th, 65^th, 79^th, 43^rd and the 68^th. Ukrainian military psychologist Andrey Kozinchuk confirmed that brigade commanders are being forced to hold positions whatever the cost, and punished for retreats. "If you kept your position and lost 200 people injured or killed, you are going to get away with it. The only line of action prescribed is "to keep it at any cost, regardless of the death toll," Kozinchuk said.

Pressed by the Russian army outside Chasov Yar, the AFU units are failing to render help to the grouping near Toretsk (Dzerzhinsk). As a result, Ukrainian soldiers are now hastily creating new defense lines on the outskirts of Druzhkovka and Konstantinovka.

The Russians are executing a pincer movement around Toretsk as a weak point of the front. "The enemy's tactical plan was to capture the Konstantinovka—Pokrovsk highway running from Ocheretino, split up our defenses at Chasov Yar, and encircle the grouping. The Russians did contact reconnaissance and found a weak spot, which they are now targeting," Ukrainian soldier Yevgeny Ivlev said. Seizing Toretsk army will pave the pay for the Russian army to the large city of Kramatorsk, which is the heart of Ukrainian occupation authorities in the Donbass, and to Slavyansk. Syrsky has deployed the 95^th airborne brigade to defend Toretsk, but has been suffering from all-around attacks turning out deplorable to the AFU. A notable thing is Ukrainian military commander Alexander Kovalenko’s opinion amid the defense crisis near Toretsk. "Things go wrong for Syrsky, because he lost three operational sites [Ocheretino, Kharkov, Toretsk] in a couple of months. Apart from that, it's all about the commanders who have learned nothing, two and a half years into the war. The mess is here to stay as long as company and battalion commanders sit in the rear 30 kilometers away, watching the war on their monitors. No matter what the endurable fortified area is, or how many weapons it has, the forcibly mobilized soldiers will choose not to fight or hold the area, but escape and surrender positions at the earliest available opportunity."

In the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are also being squeezed from their positions. The Russian army has been clearing the outskirts of Makeyevka from the enemy, and holding off their night counterattacks. Fighting is kept up in Stelmakhovka, Nevskaya Balka, Belogorovka, Myasozharovka.

"The key battle underway is for the Donbass, for the Donetsk region, and these are attempts by the Russians to reach the administrative border. Here they have the bulk of their reserves and best-trained troops. As for the ‘unprepared and understaffed’ — it's hard to say for sure, but in the responsibility area of the 41st brigade, where our Thunder unit is fighting, everyone says that the enemy is really tough. Truth be told, there are no untrained mobilized people here. The infantry, marines, and special forces are truly die-hards. Some of Russia’s methods are unique to us, make no mistake about it. That is, they mount an attack with small ladders to enter the trenches, and they carry those on their backs without losing pace; they are fast, they work in pairs. Now I don't see any mobilized or untrained guys. Let's admit that Russia is a very, very hard and prepared opponent," Ukrainian militant Kirill Sazonov told the Ukrainian media. The pressure on the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues unabated, and even the enemy has to admit it.