Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military-political analyst from the "Information Resistance" group, believes that currently, Vuhledar is tactically crucial for the adversary, while other locations primarily involve political considerations. He expressed this opinion during an interview on Espreso.
"We see an intensification of Russians on many fronts. Near Bahmut, we observe the enemy becoming more active both in the western location and in the south, towards Klishchiivka and Andriivka. There is also an escalation of hostilities in the Mariinka area. In the near future, I am confident that fighting near Vuhledar will intensify. In other words, there is a quite broad front activation in some locations. This can be considered a backup plan for the Russian command. If they cannot accomplish the task of capturing Avdiivka by the New Year or the so-called elections in Russia, they will have the opportunity to achieve some success on some of these fronts," commented the military-political analyst from the "Information Resistance" group.
The panorama of Avdiivka, captured by a drone on December 7, 2023. Kostya Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
According to Oleksandr Kovalenko, near Kupyansk, the enemy cannot initiate offensive actions until they capture the village of Synkivka. In his pre-election campaign, Putin may present the army's capture of locations like Synkivka, Avdiivka, Mariinka, Klishchiivka, Andriivka, and undoubtedly Vuhledar as achievements.
"If we talk about this backup plan of the enemy in general, the most crucial among all is not Klishchiivka, not Andriivka, not Synkivka, not Avdiivka, but precisely Vuhledar. For the Russians today, this is indeed a tactically very important location. All the others have exclusively political considerations," summarized Oleksandr Kovalenko.