The UK Ministry of Defence says in its morning intelligence update that despite the Russian military’s efforts to contain the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south, it is focused on conquering the Donbas region.
Russia’s main “axes of advance remain at Avdiivka near Donetsk City and, 60km to the north, around Bakhmut”, the MoD said in a tweet on Monday morning, “… but its forces have still only been advancing around 1km per week towards Bakhmut.”
“The political goal of the Donbas operation almost certainly remains to secure the whole of Donetsk Oblast, which would enable the Kremlin to announce the ‘liberation’ of the Donbas. Russian forces have highly likely repeatedly missed deadlines to achieve this aim.
“The Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russian forces are now under orders to complete this mission by 15 September 2022. The force is highly unlikely to achieve this, which will further complicate Russia’s plans to run referendums on the occupied areas joining the Russian Federation.”