Ukraine sitrep as of August 25. It is already out of date but it gives you a good idea of what is going on.
The Ukie forces are being completely routed. There are 5,000 Ukie troops encircled near Amrovsiivka, Uspenka, Kuteinkove, Starobesheve and Blahodatne. This area is to the southeast of Donetsk near the Russian border.
The rebels took Novoazovsk and are now fighting in Mariupol. They have also taken Starchenkove and Volodarske to the northwest of Mariupol in Donetsk. On the Donetsk-Mariupol Highway, they have taken Volnovakha.
Incredibly, they have also invaded Zaporizhia Oblast next door to Donetsk Oblast on the way to Crimea. In Zaporizhia, they have taken Osypenko and Berdansk on the coastal highway. There is heavy fighting in Urzuf and Novopetrika.
They are now only an hour outside of the large city of Melitopol. They have also crossed the border with Zaporizhia to the north and are invading to the west towards Zaporizhia city. On the way, they have conquered Zlatoustivka, Krasna Polyana and Chubarivka and Hulaipole.
They are now closing in on Zaporizhia city itself. If Zaporizhia Oblast is taken, then they all that is left is to take Kherson Oblast and there is a fully rebel controlled Novorussia all the way to Crimea. Hence Russia and Crimea would be linked via friendly territory.
To the north of Lugansk, they have taken Novoaidar north of Shchastya.
This is some sort of a blitzkrieg type attack similar to German strategy in WW2.
First accounts of “polite little green men” are showing up in the area around the encirclement above. Russian armor continues to come across the border, whether Russian troops are in it or not is not always known. Perhaps they are. 9 of the 10 Russian paratroopers who were captured near the encirclement above are apparently real people.
They were told they were going on a training mission and the next thing they knew, they were in Ukraine. There are now suggestions that considerable numbers of Russian troops have been fighting in the Donbass for a little while (1-2 weeks?). There are 92 wounded at a military hospital in St. Petersburg.
In addition, in Rostov there are graveyards where Russian KIA from the Ukraine are being buried. Reporters who went to investigate were threatened. Relatives of the dead soldiers refused to discuss the deaths, saying the information was classified.
This all seems to be a repeat of the modus operandi that Russia used to conquer Crimea recently.
The rebels suddenly have 3-4X the units that they had before. They claim these are new reports from over the border. Who knows if that is true. Rebel force was at 20,000. If it has increased 3-4X, then the rebel force is now at 60-80,000. How many of those are Red Army troops?
This is all very confusing.
Bottom line is that the Ukie army appears to be collapsing and the rebel army is blasting through eastern Ukraine in a stunning way similar to ISIS advance last month.
