Russia Seizes New Donbass Settlement in Costly Campaign

There is no holiday season in Ukraine, where fighting continues without respite. While people around the world were celebrating Christmas and holidays, the Russian army was conquering an important settlement in Donbas.

Russian advance in Kurahovo

“Russian forces probably captured Kurakhovo after two months of intensified offensive operations with the aim of capturing the settlement and eliminating Ukrainian outpost north and south of the settlement”, Institute for the Study of War estimated in his last assessment of the war.

Located in the Donetsk Oblast, in the southeast of Ukraine, Kurakhove was an important part of the Ukrainian defense line. The Russian army has been trying to capture it for several months, committing large numbers of soldiers and resources to the operation.

To take the settlement and clean up Ukrainian positions north and south of Kurakhovo, Russian army concentrated up to 36,000 soldiers in that area. Although exact numbers are available, Russian forces very likely suffered heavy losses in their efforts to capture Kurakhov. This is mainly due to the fact that Russian armyThe preferred offensive method is mass infantry attacks.

However, capturing the Kurakhs does not mean that Russian army is close to operational breakthrough. On the contrary, Russian forces are making slow and costly gains, but struggle to achieve more than tactical progress. On the other hand, the Ukrainian army usually defends a position as long as it can before returning to a better defended position and continuing the fight.

“Russian forces may have trouble advancing quickly further west of Kurakhovo along the H-15 Kurakhovo-Pokrovska highway if Ukrainian forces decide to defend in the Kurakhivska TPP and Russian forces fail to bypass the flank Ukrainian positions in the TE near Dachna or Ulakly,” the Institute for the Study of War assessed.

Russian forces they have lost many men in their attempt to capture the Kurakhs, and this may halt current further progress in the region.

Russian victims

Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to suffer heavy losses on the ground. Over the past twenty-four hours, the Russian army, paramilitary units and pro-Russian separatist forces have lost approximately 1,650 soldiers killed or wounded. In addition, the Russian invaders lost about eighty-two tactical vehicles and fuel trucks, twenty-eight unmanned aerial systems, twenty-two artillery pieces and multiple rocket systems, eighteen infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriersfourteen main battle tanks, one armed anti-aircraft defense system and one piece of special equipment.

All in all, Russian forces they lost approximately 785,000 soldiers in combat, with over 200,000 killed and over 580,000 wounded.

Despite these heavy casualties, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military leadership have chosen a strategy of attrition. They are happy to lose thousands of soldiers a day and tens of thousands of soldiers every month as long as it translates into tactical gains on the battlefield. Since the Russian military is incapable of achieving an operational breakthrough through maneuver warfare, attrition tactics, such as human wave attacks, are the Kremlin’s only reasonable option.

Stavros Atlamazoglou is an experienced defense journalist specializing in special operations and a veteran of the Hellenic Army (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army Headquarters). He received his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His work was presented in Business Insider, Sandboxxand SOFREP.

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