Over the past week, the occupiers

have made some progress on the eastern outskirts of the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, but they are unlikely to succeed in urban battles.

According to the British Ministry of Defense intelligence on Twitter, Russian infantry are now likely to be entrenched in the eastern industrial areas of the city, and are sometimes advancing into residential areas of the city.

Street fighting continues.

Intense fighting took place in the Bakhmut area from June 2022, but the front line was mainly in the open area around the eastern approaches to the city.

Since Russian troops entered Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in July 2022, there have been virtually no protracted large-scale battles in populated areas in the war.

Given that urban combat requires highly skilled infantry with excellent junior leadership, "this type of combat is unlikely to favor the poorly trained "Wagners" and mobilized reservists of the Russian army," noted British intelligence.

The situation in the Bakhmut direction

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of December 21, the occupiers continue to conduct assaults in the Bakhmut and Avdiiv areas.

The enemy fired tanks and artillery at Ukrainian positions in the areas of more than twenty settlements.

Among them are Verkhnokamianske, Spirnye, Bilogorivka, Soledar, Bakhmutske, Bakhmut, Dilyivka, Vodyane, Nevelske, Maryinka and Novomykhailivka of the Donetsk region.

Airstrikes were carried out in the areas of Spirny and Bilogorivka.

Read also:

• There is still a little left to reach the figure of 100,000: during the day, the Armed Forces destroyed another 510 occupiers

• The Armed Forces hit the locations of the occupiers' groupings and their equipment: details

• The Russian occupiers shelled Kurakhove with artillery: there are wounded, damaged houses and cars