The Battle for Novorussiya

[Lauren Johnson]

and total update from Fort Russ translated by Christina Rus:

Good evening, dear viewers. You are watching a review of the map of hostilities for Monday, February 9th.


Lets begin with the main news of the passing day - the physical closure of the Deblatsevo cauldron.


Today in the morning the fighters of Gorlovka army group from the side of Lozovoe and Gorlovka Malaya launched an attack on Longvinovo.


As a result of fighting, Longvinovo was taken under the complete control of the militia.


Along with Longvinovo, NAF fighters took strategically important heights - height 231 and height 301.


To the south from the area of Uglegorsk, NAF fighters attempted a break through, as a result of which the fighters were able to liberate several localities, such as Groznoye, Alexandrovskoye, Krasny Pakhar.


At the bottom of the cauldron, according to unconfirmed information, NAF is trying to sweep Poltavskoye. In the area of Kurgan and Mogila Ostraya clashes continue.


Militia slowly but surely is moving towards the outskirts of Polevoe. In Chernukhino, militia is continuing the operation to squeeze out parts of UAF.


At this time UAF is controlling several streets and a height West of Chernukhino.


Debaltsevo is not devoid of NAF attention, a probing of enemy defenses is ongoing.


From East and North recon-subversive groups of the militia rather freely move through downtown Debaltsevo.


The stongest positions of UAF in Debaltsevo are located in the south.


Heavy clashes are going on in the area of Novogrigorovka. Here Novorossia fighters already broke the defenses of UAF and are carrying out an operation to squeeze out UAF from the town.


From Luganskoe armored-tank columns of UAF have moved towards Nizhnee Lozovoe and Logvinovo.


With all the wishes of the Ukrainian side, the cauldron will not be deblocked, since militia had an opportunity to dig in pretty well in the area of Longvinovo and Nizhnee Lozovoe, and plus the heights will allow Novorossia artillery to carry out a strong art support.


In the area of the bottleneck Ukrainian side has at least one heavy BTG [battalion tactical group] in reserve.


It is still unclear what UAF will do with this reserve.


If they will try to deblock the cauldron, the militia from Krasny Pakhar, and most likely from Gorlovka, will begin to close a second cauldron.


If the BTG will remain in the bottleneck and will hold defense, then for the militia controlling the cauldron will be able much easier and much sooner to "boil" the cauldron


We can make a conclusion that NAF has thought out this operation to the smallest details.


In North-Western part of Lugansk People's Republic the situation has not changed overall. The artillery of LPR is carrying out heavy fire on the UAF cluster near Novotashkovka and Trehizbenka.


In the aera of Schastye and Stanitsa Luganskaya the situation has not changed in a long time.


For now the conflicting parties resort to exchange of artillery on these stretches of the front.


Lugansk artillery is firing on UAF positions in Stanitsa Luganskaya and the sronghold in the area of Olkhovaya.


In North-West of Gorlovka clashes occur in the area of Mayorsk. Artemovo, as well as Mayorsk is controlled by both sides. There is no complete control by Ukraine, as shown on the map.


The populated districts of Gorlovka are still shelled by the Ukrainian artillery, but the intensity of fire has sharply reduced. Likely it is connected with successful contra-battery work of militia artillery.


The night was very tense in Yasinovataya, Makeevka and Donetsk.


Last night around 12 pm, Donetsk was lighted up by a massive explosion, which created a giant fiery mushroom. The strike was carried out on the Donetsk Chemical Factory. It is located in the area of a "Second Platform". The wave of the blast was felt by the residents of Makeevka. Investigation is ongoing to determine what type of weapon used by the Ukrainian side could cause an explosion of such intensity. According to preliminary data the suspicion is it was Tochka U or Luna M.


Starting from the early morning and until now Kievsky, Kirovsky, Petrovsky, Kuibyshevsky districts are under constant fire.


In Petrovsky district Petrovsky bridge has been destroyed.


Dokuchaevsk and Elenovka are still under massive artillery fire of UAF.


From the side of Novognatovka and Bogdanovka UAF tanks and recon-subverisve groups regularly terrorize the residents of Styla.


On Mariupol front it is pretty quiet. Militia is trying to liquidate dozens of Ukrainian checkpoints, and carrying out reconnaissance work.


This is all for now, thank you for your attention, until next time!