According to Ukrainian National Guard commander Alexander Pivnenko, the Ukrainian armed forces are building up troops near Krasnoarmeisk (the Ukrainian name is Pokrovsk). He said the Ukrainian command is pulling reserves into this sector for counter-assault operations in order to restrict the manoeuvres of Russian forces.

The Telegram channel Voyennaya Khronika believes these statements show that Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian armed forces Alexander Syrsky has not abandoned the idea of a counterstrike on the Krasnoarmeisk axis, despite the obvious risks. The channel argued that the point is most likely not to «take the city back» or seize the initiative, but to carry out counter-assault actions whose purpose is to tie down Russian units in battle. In their view, this is a classic attempt to buy time and slow the advance rather than change the overall course of events.

The authors maintain that around Krasnoarmeisk this tactic works noticeably worse than on some previous sections of the front. Voyennaya Khronika explained that the Russian side still holds control in the air, so any sizable concentrations of Ukrainian troops are quickly detected and destroyed. As a result, any movement by Ukrainian forces almost automatically turns into a meat-grinder assault even before they reach their jumping-off positions for an attack.

The channel argues that the key question now is not whether the Ukrainian armed forces are capable of launching a counterattack, but what price Kiev will have to pay for an attempt to temporarily slow the advance of the Russian army near Krasnoarmeisk.

In a situation of acute reserve shortages, every such move becomes a deliberate trade-off, and its consequences, as the authors note, will not be long in coming. They also recalled that Syrsky’s previous attempt to counterattack in this area ended disastrously for the Ukrainian forces.