The Armed Forces of Ukraine blocked hundreds of Russians in Volchansk, now they are surrendering en masse, – Forbes

Although Russian and Ukrainian troops regularly capture each other, they rarely do so in such large numbers.

Ukrainian troops have trapped up to 400 Russians in a chemical plant in the center of Volchansk , and according to the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies, thirty Russians have already surrendered after repeated attempts to rescue them failed.

According to Forbes , over several weeks of fierce fighting, units of several Ukrainian brigades blocked the Russian offensive north of the Volchya River. At the same time, Russian forces, equivalent to at least two battalions with hundreds of infantrymen, stormed the Volchansky Chemical Plant PJSC on the right bank of the river. Apparently the Russian plan was to seize the chemical plant and then from there launch an operation to cross the river to break into southern Volchansk.

“The plan failed when Ukrainian troops—possibly from the 9th Rifle Battalion, the Russian Volunteer Corps, or the 36th Marine Brigade—attacked west of the chemical plant and advanced several blocks north, cutting off the Russians at the plant from their comrades on West,” writes Forbes.

Ukrainian fighters noted that the Russians were surrounded with no chance of evacuation or reinforcements and reported “a bunch of dead and wounded orcs.”

Russian commanders this weekend ordered their troops west of the chemical plant to break through Ukrainian positions. However, two attempts to break through to the encircled Russian troops were repulsed by Ukrainian defense forces, the Center for Defense Strategies reports.

“Obviously, it was then that the surrounded Russians began to surrender en masse. Although Russian and Ukrainian troops regularly capture each other, they rarely do so in dozens. The largest number of prisoners, as a rule, happens during the siege of large cities and chaotic hasty retreats,” – Forbes notes.

Thus, hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers surrendered after holding out for several weeks in the encircled Mariupol. In mid-February 2024, the Russians captured dozens of Ukrainians as they retreated from the ruins of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine.

“The fact that so many Russians surrendered at the same time in Volchansk, a city that neither side fully controls and which remains the subject of disputes, should have terrified the Russian command. The Russian army should not have been bogged down in Volchansk. And it certainly did not must have lost dozens of soldiers in an unsuccessful attempt to seize a bridgehead for a further attempt to cross the narrow river in the middle of the city,” the article says.

Whatever the Russians’ goals were when they crossed the border into northern Ukraine last month, they not only failed to achieve them – their prospects for success are increasingly remote, the newspaper emphasizes.

War in Ukraine – news

As Vitaly Litvin, an officer of the intelligence department of the Rubezh brigade of the NSU, said, the enemy was driven back from the village of Liptsy in the Kharkov region.

Chairman of the Council of Reservists of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ivan Timochko noted that the Russian Army is pulling up reserves in the Kharkov direction , trying to minimize the retreat of its troops.

Political observer Alexander Kovalenko said that Russian occupiers were surrounded at an aggregate plant in Volchansk, Kharkov region. He noted that the process of delivering food and ammunition to enemy forces is difficult – deliveries occur by drones. At the same time, he added that such a logistics element is unreliable.

(C)UNIAN 2024