Russian Infantry Penetrated Ukrainian Lines. Kyiv Just Sent Its Best NATO-Style Corps to Hunt Them Down.

Can the 1st Azov Corps defeat the Pokrovsk infiltration?

1st Azov Corps photo

A new Ukrainian corps with several elite brigades has rushed to the sector around Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, in an urgent bid to block a Russian infiltration of the front line around the key fortress city.

“The coming days will show whether this penetration can be contained,” explained Tatarigami, the founder of the Ukrainian Frontelligence Insight analysis group.

In recent weeks, a growing number of Russian infantry from the 51st Combined Arms Army have slipped past under-manned—if not empty—Ukrainian trenches near the village of Nove Shakhove, a few miles northeast of Pokrovsk. The Russians marched as far as nine miles to the north, and then pivoted left.

Their goal, it seems, is to capture Dobropillya, three miles west of the north-south breach. There are just two main roads into Pokrovsk, and one of them—the T0515—threads through Dobropillya.