By Roman Burko, http://burkonews.info
In the morning the battle for Horlivka continued. The militants left Holmivskyi village. Another convoy of military equipment proceeded from Debaltseve to Horlivka today to strengthen the grouping of the terrorists. The accumulation of terrorist groups was noticed in Petrivske, where the militants draw up the forces from Snizhne and Krasnyi Luch. This indicates two possible options of the preparation of attack: either towards Lysychansk or towards Horlivka.
Defense islands щif terrorists still remain in Lysychansk although the official media reported about complete liberation of the city. The mopping-up of the area has not finished yet and therefore it is too early to talk about the final victory; moreover that militants still have a possibility to attack Lysychansk. The liberation of the city is complicated due to the large number of industrial areas, not locked roads along Siverskyi Donets River which are used by militants for communication and a possible counter attack from Petrivske via Stakhanov.
On July 24 at 11:00 we observed movement of a large military convoy from Snizhne to Krasnyi Luch and after that military equipment of militants moved towards BCPDolzhanskyi and Sverdlovsk. This could mean that militants are preparing for withdrawal to Novoshakhtinsk (Russia) or attempting a deceptive maneuver to lure the Ukrainian forces closer towards the Russian border so that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation could attack the ATO forces from the territory of the Russian Federation.
The option of a tactical withdrawal of the militants towards the border with the Russian Federation is confirmed by departure of a convoy with civilians (probably families of the local terrorists) from Alchevsk.
Terrorists for several days in a row have been shelling our troops in the area of BCPDolzhanskyi and Marynivka. With great efforts the ATO forces manage to retain control over that border area there.
It was noticed that since 22:00 six heavy guns located southwards of Gukovo (Rostov region, Russia) have been shelling the positions of our servicemen. The Ukrainian side does not respond to these provocations in order not to provoke a full scale invasion by the Russian troops. At that a Russian helicopter patrols the border territory of the Russian Federation thoroughly, probably looking for shell bursts expecting that the Ukrainian side returns fire.
The ATO forces continue to advance upon Donetsk in the direction of Netailove-Pisky. The situation becomes complicated because terrorists continue to set their guns and shell the ATO forces from densely populated areas.
The attempt to expel the ATO forces from Blahodatne failed and after retirement and redisposition the Ukrainian military liberated it again. While attacking Blahodatne the militants used MRLS BM-21 “Grad”.
Just another reinforcement in the form of several MRLS “Grad” units arrived to Luhansk. According to one version, the engineer troops of the Russian Federation carried out the construction of pontoon ferries.
Advance upon Luhansk continues from the northern and south-western directions; furthermore, the problem with Izvaryne has not been resolved yet and this lets the militants reinforce and replenish their arsenal of weapons.
According to our forecasts militants can breach via BCP Dolzhanskyi and Marynivka. The terrorists constantly perform diversionary sallies and shell both from the Ukrainian and Russian territory. Besides, there is a possibility of counterattacks towards Pervomaisk-Lysychansk and Debaltseve-Horlivka. The latter is concerned with the need to prevent the complete encirclement of Donetsk.
Moreover, give the accumulation of the forces in the border area of the Russian Federation and provocations in Sumy and Kharkiv regions, we can expect a breakthrough of the militants in the direction we showed in our previous summaries.
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Русский: АТО. Сводка за 24.07.2014
Français: Opération Anti-Terroriste: Résumé du 24.07.2014
