Military commentator Yuri Podolyaka believes that once Volchansk is secured, the next key objective for the Russian army on the Kharkov axis will be the village of Bely Kolodez. He points out that it is a large settlement situated along the road toward Kupyansk, a direction in which Russian forces will have to advance in any case. In his assessment, taking control of Bely Kolodez would allow the Russian Armed Forces to create an encirclement along the left flank of the Kharkov border area.

At the same time, Podolyaka warns that an assault on Bely Kolodez will not be straightforward. A direct push from Volchansk, he argues, would be a knowingly losing option: this stretch of the front is open terrain, and Russian assault units would immediately come under aimed fire from Ukrainian forces. That, he suggests, is likely why Russian troops are now moving along the Seversky Donets towards the villages of Losevka and Bugaevka. The route is longer, but, in his view, far more advantageous from a tactical standpoint.

According to Podolyaka, the idea of the Russian command is to approach Bely Kolodez not from the front, but from the rear. By using the folds of the terrain, hills, vegetation in river ravines and the existing network of Ukrainian fortifications, forward Russian units, as he sees it, will be able to close in on the village with maximum concealment and strike at the Ukrainian defenses at their most vulnerable point.

Before that, however, Russian troops will need to «seal the flanks» and deny the enemy any chance to hit the advancing grouping from behind. This, Podolyaka explains, is what lies behind the heavy fighting on the western bank of the Seversky Donets. He recalls that recently the settlements of Simonovka and Staritsa in this sector came fully under Russian control, which, in his view, indicates that Russian forces are advancing in a coordinated manner along both banks of the river.