AFP
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NOS News•today, 10:04•Amended today, 10:37
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After a period of relative calm, Russia appears to be ramping up attacks in the Donbas again. The Ukrainian army enrolls an update on the war that it has repulsed several Russian attacks in the Donetsk region – one of the two regions in the Donbas – in the past 24 hours.
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Furthermore, according to Ukraine, “after a regrouping”, the Russians have resumed the attack on a power plant near the eastern Ukrainian city of Voehlehirsk.
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Experts from the American war think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also subscribe a final analysis that Russia has ended the fighting break. There were attacks near the cities of Slovyansk and Siversk and on the highway that runs from the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk to Bachmut, in Donetsk.
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Attacks ramped up
According to the ISW, these were small-scale, failed attacks. “But once the combat break is really over, these attacks will likely continue and expand for the next 72 hours.”
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At the same time, messages are also coming from Russia itself that hint at an end of the fighting break. So reports state press agency TASS today on statements made by Defense Minister Shoygu during an inspection of soldiers who had fought in the Donbas.
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According to TASS, Shoigu said that “in all operational areas” the attacks are being stepped up further, in order to prevent Ukraine from targeting “civil infrastructure and inhabitants” in the Donbas with artillery or missiles.
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Exhausted troops
About ten days ago it became clear that Russia had temporarily stopped large-scale attacks in the Donbas. However, shelling with artillery and bombardments continued.
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According to the ISW, exhausted Russian troops were given rest and time to regroup after the heavy battles for the cities of Lysychansk and in particular Severodonetsk; with those cities, Russia took full control of the Donbas region of Lugansk. The conquest of the entire Donbas is a major war goal of Russian President Putin.
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The 10-day battle break may not have been enough to bring Russian troops back to full strength, ISW analysts write. “But apparently the Russian army feels constant pressure to resume the attacks.” According to the military experts, that haste could have consequences for how energetically Russia will act on the battlefield in the coming period.
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