Offensive on Toretsk direction may indicate a change in Russia's priorities - ISW

Russian troops are preparing to capture Toretsk in the coming days, and the redeployment of elements of the Eastern Military District (MD) to strengthen the Russian grouping in the Toretsk direction may indicate new priority efforts by Russia to resume attacks in the direction of Kostyantynivka. This was reported by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), according to UNN.

Details

According to ISW's preliminary assessment, Russian forces likely intend to use the capture of Toretsk to advance further west and along the T-05-16 Toretsk-Kostiantynivka highway toward the southernmost point of the Ukrainian fortification belt in Kostiantynivka.

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It is noted that the advance of Russian troops in the Toretsk direction was slow, as the occupiers were moving through built-up urban areas, but they may start advancing relatively faster once they break through Toretsk to more open areas west of the settlement.

Russian forces may also attempt to use tactical advantages within and near Toretsk and east of Pokrovsk to destroy Ukrainian positions southwest of Toretsk, and some Russian bloggers have recently suggested that Russian forces may intensify offensive operations southwest of Toretsk to this end

Experts believe that Russian troops may seek to destroy Ukrainian positions southwest of Toretsk in order to strengthen their southern flank before advancing on Kostyantynivka.

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the Russian military command may redeploy elements of units to strengthen offensive operations in the Toretsk sector if it has a priority intention to put pressure on the Ukrainian fortification belt in the Donetsk region in the spring and summer of 2025.

The capture of Pokrovsk has been the main operational goal of the Russian military command in Donetsk region since February 2024.

“Thus, the redeployment of Russian units to the Toretsk or Chasiv-Yarsk directions - as opposed to retaining units in western Donetsk region, redeploying to the Zaporizhzhia direction, or redeploying to the Pokrovsk direction - would indicate a change in Russian operational priorities,” the report by the American Institute for the Study of War says.

Recall

Russian troops made advances in the area of Toretsk, near Andriivka and Novoyelizavetivka. This was reported by the analytical OSINT project DeepState in an updated map of the fighting.