Russian and Ukrainian forces battled at close range in forest near the Donbas town of Kremina over Orthodox Christmas, according to British intelligence.
In its Saturday update on the course of the war in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that fighting had “continued at a routine level into the Orthodox Christmas period” — despite Russian president Vladimir Putin having called a unilateral ceasefire dismissed by the Ukrainian government as an attempt to trick them
“One of the most fiercely contested sectors continues to be around the town of Kremina, in Luhansk Oblast,” the MoD asserted, adding that “the fighting around Kremina has focused on the heavily forested terrain to the west of the town” in recent weeks.
“With the coniferous woodland providing some cover from air observation even in winter, both sides are highly likely struggling to accurately adjust artillery fire,” the British continued, saying that the battle had “largely devolved to dismounted infantry fighting, often at short range” — as is often the case with combat in forested terrain.
Since the recapture of Kherson by Ukrainian forces, most eyes have turned to the Donbas city of Bakhmut as the main scene of the action in the conflict, with Russian forces making dogged attempts to take the city in a battle described by both sides as a “meat-grinder”.
Western media once suggested that Russia gaining the town would “rupture Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk”, but the current narrative is that the city is actually of little strategic significance, and that the Russians are allegedly sustaining heavy casualties in frontal assaults to no clearly discernible purpose.
Their war of attrition for Bakhmut may prove all for naught, however, if the emerging picture of Kremina as the place where the lines will move significantly again — as a result of Ukraine capturing the town — proves accurate.
“Russian commanders will highly likely view pressure around Kremina as a threat to the right flank of their Bakhmut sector, which they see as key for enabling any future advance to occupy the remainder of Donetsk Oblast,” the British intelligence update explained.
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