Russia will not be able to quickly seize the currently unoccupied part of Donetsk Oblast by force, as Russian troops have failed to do so for over ten years. This is stated in a material by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), reported by UNN.
Details
It is noted that Russia can quickly seize the entire Donetsk Oblast only if Ukraine agrees to the demand of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and withdraws troops from the rest of the oblast.
Putin's assertion that Russian forces will inevitably seize the entire Donetsk Oblast if the war continues is false. The Russian campaign to seize the entire Donetsk Oblast has been ongoing since Russia's first invasion in 2014 and remains incomplete
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They recall that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on August 17 that Russia had tried and failed to seize the entire Donetsk Oblast over the past 12 years of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Russian forces have been bogged down in campaigns to capture several towns and villages in Donetsk Oblast, and are still struggling to achieve the goals of several of these campaigns. Capturing the rest of Donetsk Oblast will likely take Russian forces several years
They recall Russia's not-so-successful, and at the same time "costly" campaigns to capture Kupyansk, Toretsk, and Chasiv Yar.
"Russian forces took 26 months to advance approximately 6.8 miles (approximately 11 kilometers) from western Bakhmut to the western outskirts of Chasiv Yar," analysts point out.
Recall
The day before, US President Donald Trump reposted on social media a message stating that Ukraine should be prepared to lose some territory to Russia in order not to lose even more.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the Constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to renounce territory or trade land.
At the same time, European leaders condemned proposals to transfer Ukrainian territories to Russia for peace. They emphasized Ukraine's sovereign right to determine the terms of peace.