Russian Tanks Can't Take Chasiv Yar

But the Russians have other plans

Ukrainian artillery near Chasiv Yar. 24th Mechanized Brigade photo

This story was commissioned by Euromaidan Press. Since Substack pays only around a fifth of my bills, I have no choice but to take on a lot of freelance work. I still want my Substack audience to know where to read those freelance stories, however. Hence this excerpt.

The town of Chasiv Yar, in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, stands astride the most obvious path to the city of Kostiantynivka, 7 km to the west.

Kostiantynivka in turn blocks the path to the city of Kramatorsk, 15 km to the north.

Kramatorsk and neighboring Sloviansk are the last big free cities in Donetsk Oblast. Russia has spent two years trying to break through Chasiv Yar to reach them. So far, it hasn’t.

And that’s why Chasiv Yar—what’s left of it after years of fighting—matters. After two days of failed mechanized assaults, the Russians’ plans for getting around Ukrainian defenders clinging to the western outskirts, in order to then drive on Kostiantynivka, are coming into focus.

“Russians have several options they will probably try to exploit,” mapper and observer Vitaly wrote. The easiest for the Russians, they added, may be to infiltrate past the battered Ukrainian defenders of Chasiv Yar and into Novodmytrivka, a village just east of Kostiantynivka.

If enough Russian troops can entrench in Novodmytrivka, they could get access to the H20 road leading north from Kostiantynivka to Kramatorsk. As a bonus, Vitaly pointed out, a Russian occupation of Novodmytrivka would “cut off” Chasiv Yar from Ukrainian reinforcements and bottle up any Ukrainian defenders left behind.

Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.