{"id":322363,"date":"2025-08-06T11:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/322363\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:24:13","slug":"russia-eyes-ukraines-fortress-belt-after-fall-of-chasiv-yar-russia-ukraine-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/322363\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia eyes Ukraine\u2019s \u2018fortress belt\u2019 after fall of Chasiv Yar | Russia-Ukraine war News"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a difficult week in Ukraine\u2019s ground war, Russian troops completed their conquest of Chasiv Yar, a high ground in Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donetsk region, and claimed to have breached the outskirts of Kupiansk, a city with a pre-war population of more than 26,000, in Ukraine\u2019s northern Kharkiv region.<\/p>\n

Both conquests are the result of months-long efforts and have cost the Russians dearly in blood and weapons.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Russian forces pushed into Dnipropetrovsk, a Ukrainian region whose borders they first breached over the weekend of June 7-8, capturing the village of Sichneve, which Russians call Yanvarskoye. It was the third claimed conquest in Dnipropetrovsk. Earlier, Russia captured Dachnoye and Malynivka.<\/p>\n

Russia also began to launch jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles to deadly effect, killing 31 people in Kyiv on July 31.<\/p>\n

Ukraine responded with deep strikes on Russian transport networks and energy hubs.<\/p>\n

\"AA serviceman of the 57th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine repairs a tank in the Kharkiv region, on August 1, 2025 [Inna Varenytsia\/Reuters]Chasiv Yar and the \u2018fortress belt\u2019<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defence said its paratroopers overran Chasiv Yar on July 31.<\/p>\n

Moscow\u2019s forces began to besiege the city in March 2024, about a month after the fall of Avdiivka, 30km (20 miles) to the south freed up offensive troops.<\/p>\n

Russia prioritised this line of attack after conquering the city of Bakhmut in May 2023, following months of battles led by Wagner Group mercenaries.<\/p>\n

Since Bakhmut fell, Russian forces have conquered a salient running 27km (17 miles) west of it. Chasiv Yar presented a challenge and a prize \u2013 a challenge because it sat astride a canal that formed a natural defensive barrier, and a prize because it is a vantage point from which Russia can survey the remaining free areas of Donetsk.<\/p>\n

\u201cChasiv Yar is a key height in terms of adjusting observation and conducting combat operations,\u201d military expert Vitaly Kiselyov told the Soloviev Live television network in Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo all appearances, we will be outflanking from the south and the north, gradually puncturing the enemy forces and edging them out, all the more so as we now hold an advantageous height relative to all other settlements,\u201d said Kiselyov.<\/p>\n

Another Russian military expert said the capture of Chasiv Yar enabled Russian forces to advance towards the so-called \u201cfortress belt\u201d of heavily defended Ukrainian cities in Donetsk.<\/p>\n

\u201cChasiv Yar is situated on a hilltop, and beyond it, there are very vast expanses of flat terrain. The nearest agglomeration \u2013 Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka \u2013 is well fortified,\u201d Andrey Marochko told the Russian newswire TASS.<\/p>\n

Chasiv Yar sits at the northern end of an attempted Russian encirclement of Konstiantynivka, and on Saturday, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed its forces had captured Aleksandro-Kalinovo, on the southern end of the crab\u2019s claw enclosing Konstiantynivka.<\/p>\n

Some analysts disagreed that the fall of Chasiv Yar was as important as Russian analysts made it sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cTactical Russian advances westward in Chasiv Yar do not constitute an operationally significant development in this area,\u201d said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussian forces have held most of northern and central Chasiv Yar since late January 2025 and began advancing in southwestern Chasiv Yar in mid-June 2025,\u201d the ISW said.<\/p>\n

It added that Ukrainian lines of communication were not further threatened, since \u201cRussian forces have been within tube artillery range of Ukraine\u2019s main logistics route through the fortress belt since late January 2025 and have held positions along the T-0504 Bakhmut-Kostyantynivka highway for several months, and have yet to significantly threaten Ukrainian positions in Kostiantynivka.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ResidentsResidents walk at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian military strike in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, July 31, 2025 [Yevhen Titov\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

The situation was different in Pokrovsk, some 35km (22 miles) southwest of Chasiv Yar, which Russia has also besieged.<\/p>\n

Denis Pushilin, the head of the pro-Russian, self-proclaimed Donetsk People\u2019s Republic, said Ukrainian lines of communication into Pokrovsk had been impaired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe enemy has been largely denied the possibility to deliver ammunition and carry out troop rotation,\u201d Pushilin said.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii said on Telegram, \u201cThe most difficult situation now is in the Pokrovsk, Dobropillia, and Novopavlivka directions,\u201d naming two more settlements that lie behind Pokrovsk in unoccupied Donetsk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe enemy is increasing efforts to capture our key agglomerations, looking for vulnerable spots in our defence, and conducting active combat operations simultaneously on several fronts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Russian forces were forming sabotage groups in the Ukrainian rear in an attempt at \u201ctotal infiltration\u201d, and that Ukraine was \u201cusing anti-sabotage reserves, whose task is to search for and destroy enemy sabotage groups\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kupiansk and the \u2018buffer zone\u2019<\/p>\n

At the northern end of the front, Russia claimed to have entered Kupiansk in Kharkiv on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Russian troops were fighting street battles in Kupiansk, Russian military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS. He said troops were deploying small, mobile groups targeting Ukrainian positions with precise strikes.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s forays into Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv lie beyond Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, the four regions Russia formally annexed in September 2022.<\/p>\n

Russia claims to be creating a buffer zone to protect those regions, but Ukraine believes that claim to be an excuse for further occupation.<\/p>\n

Russian low-level officials have suggested that the buffer zone should be at least 30km (20 miles) deep, but the Russian leadership has placed no such limit.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer pro-Russia service members gather to celebrate the Paratroopers\u2019 Day, the annual holiday of Russia\u2019s Airborne Troops, in Donetsk, Russian-controlled part of Ukraine, August 2, 2025 [Alexander Ermochenko\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Moscow also continued its long-range strikes against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

An overnight drone attack on July 31 killed 31 people in Kyiv. The Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Russia used jet-powered Shahed drones, which travel much faster than the propeller-driven kind, and are difficult to intercept.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces launched eight Iskander-K cruise missiles from Kursk city and 309 Shahed-type and decoy drones. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it \u201can absolutely vile, brutal strike\u201d.<\/p>\n

The war of words<\/p>\n

Even as he pressed on with these offensives, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Ukraine was not ready for peace talks.<\/p>\n

During a news conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday, Putin said, \u201cIn principle, we can wait if the Ukrainian leadership believes that now is not the time,\u201d adding that \u201call disappointments arise from excessive expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was referring to the fact that three rounds of direct negotiations have yielded no ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\"RussianRussian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko visit the Valaam Monastery in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, August 1, 2025 [Sputnik\/Gavriil Grigorov\/Pool via Reuters]<\/p>\n

United States President Donald Trump repeated last week that he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d in Putin, and has in recent weeks allowed US weapons to flow to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the US Pentagon said it would sell Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air (AMRAAM) missiles to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Trump also got into a social media spat with Dmitry Medvedev<\/a>, the deputy head of Russia\u2019s National Security Council, after Medvedev objected to Trump\u2019s August 9 deadline for Russia to seal a ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Trump wrote on his TruthSocial service that he had \u201cordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the same day, Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on India for buying Russian oil. On Tuesday, he told CNBC, \u201cI\u2019m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they\u2019re buying Russian oil, they\u2019re fuelling the war machine, and if they\u2019re going to do that, I\u2019m not going to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s strikes<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ukraine stepped up its interdiction campaign against Russian energy and transport infrastructure.<\/p>\n

On July 31, Russia said it shot down 32 Ukrainian long-range UAVs in its western border regions. As a result of the Ukrainian attack, it said rail services in the Volgograd region were delayed.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has been attacking the Russian railways connecting defence factories to the front, said open-source intelligence gatherer Frontelligence Insight.<\/p>\n

Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine\u2019s Center for Countering Disinformation, said a radio factory in Penza, Russia was attacked, which made mobile command complexes and automated combat control systems.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Ukraine unleashed a wide-ranging set of strikes.<\/p>\n

Kovalenko said the Radio Plant in Penza was attacked a second time, along with Electropribor, a manufacturer of encryptors, secure modems and switches for military and intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

Ukraine also hit a storage and launch site for Shahed drones at the Primorsko-Akhtarsk military airfield in Krasnodar.<\/p>\n

But its biggest hits were against oil refineries.<\/p>\n

Ukraine attacked the Ryazan Oil Refinery, one of Russia\u2019s four largest, responsible for more than 6 percent of all refining in Russia, causing a fire. Also hit was the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery near Samara city, where explosions were filmed. Ukraine also struck the Annanafteproduct oil depot in the Voronezh region, setting it alight, and on Sunday, a Ukrainian long-range strike hit an oil depot in Sochi on the Black Sea.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian media reported that explosions damaged the main Russian gas pipeline carrying gas from Turkmenistan to Russia, shutting it down indefinitely. The media outlets said it supplied military industries, including the Demikhov Machine-Building Plant, the MiG aircraft company, and the Magnum-K ammunition plant.<\/p>\n

\"ServiceService members of the 13th Operative Purpose Brigade \u2018Khartiia\u2019 of the National Guard of Ukraine rest as they return from a combat mission in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, August 2, 2025 [Sofiia Gatilova\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a difficult week in Ukraine\u2019s ground war, Russian troops completed their conquest of Chasiv Yar, a high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,12,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-322363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","13":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114981574198737993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}