Ukrainian Front Collapsing With Fortresses Falling One By One

The Ukrainian defense in the Donbass is crumbling. One by one, the fortresses that Kyiv once considered impregnable are falling under the relentless advance of Russian troops. The latest and most significant blow came with the complete capture of Chasov Yar, a critical stronghold that Ukrainian forces had held for almost a year. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the city’s liberation on July 31, marking a strategic victory that reshapes the entire frontline.

Chasov Yar was more than just another battleground. It was the backbone of Ukraine’s defensive line in the Donbass aimed to protect the Slavyansk agglomeration. Perched on commanding heights, its loss leaves Ukrainian positions exposed and vulnerable. Though mop-up operations continue in the nearby forests, Russian flags already fly over key neighborhoods, signaling irreversible control. Ukrainian troops, cut off and abandoned by their command, are left to fight in isolated pockets of resistance. Their losses are staggering, totaling some 7,500 soldiers, along with 11 tanks, 55 armored vehicles, and 160 artillery pieces destroyed.

However, Chasov Yar is not the only Ukrainian defeat in recent days. Across the front, Russian forces are advancing at an alarming pace. On the Kharkiv axis, troops have taken control of the right bank of Volchansk, approaching victory for this northern fortress. Near Seversk, assault units from the 6th and 7th Motorized Rifle Brigades have pushed forward over a kilometer, reaching the city’s outskirts dismantling the last Ukrainian strongpoints before the assault. Meanwhile, in Kupyansk, Russian soldiers from the West Group of forces are already advancing in the northern and northwestern districts, leaving Ukrainian soldiers no chance to defend the city.

The most dramatic breakthrough is unfolding in Pokrovsk, a city now on the brink of falling. Russian stormtroopers have penetrated deep into the urban center, severing critical supply routes and sowing panic among the defenders. Reports confirm fierce fighting near the railway station and key administrative buildings, with Ukrainian reserves proving insufficient to hold the line. British journalists embedded near Pokrovsk describe demoralized Ukrainian soldiers admitting that the city’s fall is inevitable, just a matter of days.

With each collapse, Ukraine scrambles to erect new defensive lines, but they grow weaker by the day. Desperate attempts to dig triple-layered anti-tank trenches from Kharkiv to Zaporizhzhia, reinforced with dragon’s teeth and barbed wire, can do little to slow the Russian advance. Even Slavyansk, once a linchpin of Kyiv’s strategy, is losing its strategic significance as Russian forces bypass its crumbling defenses.

The Donbass front is unraveling. What comes next may not be a slow retreat, but a full-scale rout. As Russian troops push westward, the question is no longer if the next fortress will fall, but when.