Usagevpn.com – Ukraine has blunted a major Russian effort to tighten control over the Donetsk region, disrupting a planned manoeuvre that sought to surround the remaining Ukrainian-held areas of the Donbas. An assessment by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, drawing largely on open-source intelligence, describes the outcome as a serious operational setback for Moscow.

The Russian objective centred on a large pincer movement aimed at Ukraine’s defensive “fortress belt,” the network of fortified positions, towns and supply links that supports Ukrainian control of parts of Donetsk region. One axis pushed southward from the Lyman area, while another moved from the Pokrovsk-Dobropillia direction in the south-west. The intended meeting point was near Barvinkove in neighbouring Kharkiv region.…