This should be an excellent roundup sitrep of the Ukraine situation and is probably one of the most comprehensive, up to date and easy to read sitreps out there.
The fighting is still ongoing in the Debaltsevo pocket.
The NAF have surrounded the Ukies in this area. Just now, Nikishno has been fully taken. The Ukies were under orders not to abandon their positions until the last minute, so a lot of material was captured when they left.
In addition, the NAF reported that it has captured Chornukhyno and the southern part of Kamyenka. The Chornukhyno report is probably in error as there are still Ukies in that town. However, the NAF has definitely seized a position between Chornukhyno and Debaltsevo and now the Ukies in both places are cut off from each other.
Although the rumors are vigorously resisted, a wounded Ukie soldier Artemivsk stated unprovoked to a Norwegian reporter that the NAF is already inside Debaltsevo and battles are ongoing within city limits.
The video above shows NAF forces apparently advancing into the city of Debaltsevo itself. The infantry is advancing with the tank because they are afraid of snipers and if snipers are present, then infantry is better off advancing alongside a tank.
The Ukies are medevacuating many wounded soldiers from the city. Also the rebels are letting vehicles with wounded soldiers leave the city along with refugees.
The population of the city has declined from 30,000 to 7,000 in recent days as many convoys have been evacuating residents. The Ukies are racing reinforcements to Artemivsk to relieve the Debaltsevo pocket. Reinforcements have been flooding into Artemivsk for some time now. But it is not known how they will get into Debaltsevo as the road is being shelled by the NAF. A convoy coming to relieve Debaltsevo was shelled at Minorovsky and had to turn around.
It has now been confirmed finally that the NAF has at long last cut the road from Debaltsevo to Artemivsk. Nevertheless, the entire highway between Debaltsevo and Artemivsk is full of Ukie military vehicles, tanks, etc. However, the road is under regular artillery fire.
The latest news from Debaltsevo is that a significant Ukie force in the town is presently negotiating surrender terms with the NAF.
Despite many reports that Uglegorsk has been taken by the NAF, the Ukies are still in the town. In particular, snipers inhabit many buildings and the situation is quite dangerous. Larger Ukie formations are apparently still in the city also. An effort is being made by the NAF to evacuate civilians from the city.
This video shows the evacuation from Uglegorsk from a sympathetic Russian TV channel. The residents are all pro-Russian and they all hate Poroshenko.
The Ukies continue to hold Redkodub and repelled NAF attacks there.
Fighting is still ongoing in Sanzhorovka, a city supposedly controlled by the NAF.
Very heavy fighting continues in Krasny Pahar.
Hundreds of civilians are being evacuated from Svetlodorsk, which is surrounded on three sides by the NAF, and Artemovsk, a front line city completely controlled by the Ukies where wounded are evacuated and reinforcements are flooding in. The fact that civilians are leaving Svetlodorsk and especially Artemovsk does not bode well for the future of the Ukies in this war.
The heavy battle for Popasnaya is stalemated and the NAF took serious losses. Presently they are mired in the eastern suburbs. The NAF currently lacks enough forces to take the city. Most of the best NAF troops are in the Debaltsevo area.
A Ukie warplane was shot down over Gorlovka. The city continues to come under very heavy terror shelling.
The NAF has apparently fully taken the town of Mayorsk to the west of Gorlovka and have now pushed west seizing an area in between Mayorsk and Dzerzhinisk. The Ukies took heavy losses in Mayorsk.
The city of Yasinovataya came under very heavy terror shelling by the Ukies. Many buildings were damaged.
West of Donetsk, the NAF stated that it finally took Peski after fighting for many months for the town. However this report seems to be in error because there are still Ukies in the town. The NAF took very heavy casualties here and had to put up with inept commanders like “Batman” (who has apparently been assassinated). Batman ordered his troops to attack Peski through a minefield. Further, many infantry movements were not accompanied by appropriate armor and IFV’s.
Fighting in the Marinka area seems stalled and stalemated.
South of Donetsk, an NAF force attacked Nikolaevka behind enemy lines. Komsomolskoe came under heavy terror shelling by the Ukies.
There has been little change on the Mariupol front, but there have been some minor exchanges between the two forces with small arms and artillery.
East of Gorlovka, the NAF shelled the Kryimskoe. There has been little going on in the region of the checkpoints 28-31. The NAF do not have enough forces to capture Ukie territory here.
Things are quiet in Slavyanoserbsk.
North of Lugansk in Schaste, the Ukie military and the ancillary Nazi forces were shelling each other for unknown reasons.
Officials of the Lugansk Republic said they shot down a Ukie jet over the republic.
Things are fairly quiet in Stanitsa Luganskaya.
Large convoys of Russian military vehicles were spotted within 5 miles of the Donbass border, heading towards Ukraine.
Although obviously most of the NAF’s equipment comes from Russia, there are probably not many Russian troops fighting with the NAF. The Ukie government’s claim that 9,000 Russian troops with the NAF is not credible. A better figure may be 1-3,000. Since the NAF has a force of 30,000 men, possibly 3-10% of them are Russian military and the rest are volunteers, mostly from the Donbass. Most of the photos and videos you see on the web purporting to show “Russian soldiers” cannot possibly be Russian troops. This is because Russian troops must be clean shaven and have very short hair as per regulations. They must also be young and in very good shape. As you can see in most NAF videos, your average NAF soldier has hair longer (often much longer) than Russian regulations. In addition, they are often not clean shaven and have anywhere from a stubble to a full beard. Also quite a few NAF troops appear to be too old for the Russian military or not in good enough shape to join. Many NAF troops are older, often middle aged men, and quite a few are overweight or otherwise not in good shape.
