The battlefield in the South-East Ukraine is dominated by a geographic feature that is known
as the Donbas industrial area. Attacking in or around it has had really bad luck.
In the Russian civil war the Red Army launched a major attack here and as a result it had to
retreat more than halfway back to Moscow. In the Second World War the Germans had to undertake
their first major retreat after failing to capture the Donbas and when the Red Army attacked here
after that, it lost more than a quarter of a million men without anything to show for it.
So, is this place cursed? Well, it is not a curse, but terrain.
Urban areas with buildings are very difficult to attack and the Donbas industrial area has a lot
of them. How much? Well, imagine Stalingrad. Now multiply it by six and divide it over a larger
area. Before the Second World War 6 times more people lived in the cities of the Donbas than
was the population than Stalingrad. Given how difficult it was to capture Stalingrad,
you probably get the picture. This is the reason attacking has been so unsuccessful here.
Speaking of the battle of Stalingrad, this is where the previous video in these series ended.
This video will cover the fighting in the Donbas from the Battle of Stalingrad to 2015.
The battle of Stalingrad was a major success for the Red Army. It resulted in
the destruction of many German and Romanian units. After that the Red Army completely
routed the forces of Germany's allies. Then the Soviets moved out against German units,
who had survived the battle of Stalingrad. The Germans had set up their positions
behind the Siversky Donets river and the Soviets deployed 8 armies against them.
Most of them were to advance from the east and only two armies were deployed to the north.
Their goal was to advance from two directions and occupy the Donbas industrial area. We will
now look in detail into the fighting in the Donbas beginning with the attack from the east.
The Soviets crossed the Siversky Donets river. They now set out to capture the major city of
Luhansk, but they got bogged down fighting in the strongly fortified outskirts of the city.
The Soviets reorganized their forces and attempted to bypass Lugansk from the south. The Germans used
this time to pull back their forces from the Siversky Donets to a much shorter line before
the towns of Alchevsk, Khrustalny and Snizhne. With the new forces they were able to eliminate
the Soviet breakthrough and continued to successfully repel the Soviet attacks.
The Soviets did not have the time to launch a major attack,
because at that time they began suffering reverses west of the Donbas industrial area.
At the same time other Soviet forces were moving towards Donetsk from the north. The
Soviets bypassed the German strongpoints. Then they set out to cross the Siversky Donets river.
The Soviets now had to overcome the German strongpoints in the cities of the Donbas
industrial area. The Red Army moved in to encircle Lysychansk, and in order to avoid being encircled,
the German forces abandoned the town. In the west the Soviets captured Kramatorsk and encircled
the German garrison in Slovyansk, but the Germans used the reinforcements to restore the connection
to their strongpoint in the town. The Red Army now attacked south towards Konstantinovka and Bakhmut,
but the German defenses proved too strong to overcome. So the Soviets changed the strategy
and launched an outflanking maneuver to the west. The soviets achieved surprise and their tanks
captured the railway junction of Pokrovsk. They attempted to continue towards Donetsk
but were stopped by German reinforcements. Both sides continued to fight for Pokrovsk.
At this moment the tide of the battle turned. The German forces in the west launched a major
counteroffensive and encircled the forward Soviet forces. This helped the Germans to go on
the offensive in the Donbas and they encircled and destroyed the Soviet forces in Pokrovsk.
The Germans continued the counteroffensive and the Soviets now lacked the troops to
man the whole front. The Soviets fell back, but they could not restore the integrity of
the front and the Germans continued to bypass them. As part of this the German tank forces
encircled the Soviet garrisons in Kramatorsk and Slovyansk. Unable to withstand the German
counterattack the Red army retreated behind the Siversky Donets river. This included abandoning
their last positions in the western part of the industrial area in the city of Lysychansk.
Verdict: The Germans could launch a successful counterattack against the Soviets,
because the Red Army got bogged down in the Donbas industrial area.
During the next summer the battle of Kursk was fought. The Red Army won the battle and in this
it was aided with getting access to the German plan of attack. Why did this happen? Because the
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Meanwhile, on the Eastern front the Red Army won the battle of Kursk and began an offensive along
the whole front. As part of this they aimed to capture the Donbas. This time the Soviets wanted
to avoid fighting in the cities and attempted to go around them by striking from north and east
towards Donetsk. But despite avoiding fighting in the cities, this plan was also not favorable,
because this meant the Soviets would have to divide their effort into two unsupported attacks.
The northern attack crossed the Siversky Donets, but could not advance further.
The eastern attack made some progress, but the Germans brought up their armor and defeated the
Soviets were defeated by a German counterattack. The Soviet attempt to take the Donbas had failed.
The Soviets waited until their offensives outside of the Donbas had dealt great damage to the
Germans and then they launched another attempt. By that time the Germans had run out of the forces
for a counterattack. They did have enough forces to contain the more dangerous Soviet northern
attack, but they lacked reinforcements to send against the Soviet eastern attack and here the
Soviets broke through south of the industrial area. The Germans could not stop the Soviet
offensive, and began withdrawing their forces to avoid encirclement. They abandoned all of
the Donbas industrial zone and retreated to the next defensive line on the Dnipro river.
The Soviet Union took control over the Donbas industrial area.
Verdict: the Soviets were able to capture the Donbas industrial area,
after they were able to defeat the German forces outside it.
The battles of the Second World War were over, but at that time the seeds of a new conflict in the
Donbas were sown. The industries of the Donbas, which were on the territory of Soviet Ukraine were
greatly expanded, a lot of workforce being drawn there from the territory of Russia, which made
this territory mostly Russian speaking. Now, fast forward several decades and the Soviet Union has
collapsed and in 2014 Russia and Ukraine entered into open conflict. With the Donbas being mostly
Russian speaking, there were many Pro-Russian people there and under Russian influence they
started an insurgency against Ukraine. They took over most of the cities of the Donbas and
declared themselves to be the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Ukraine deployed
60 000 soldiers to the region and prepared to go on the offensive. Many armies before had attempted
to take the Donbas industrial area and had failed, but Ukraine had a chance, because the Pro-Russian
separatists lacked military equipment and this gave the Ukrainian forces an advantage. There
was a problem, though - Russia would attempt to supply the separatist forces with military gear.
Ukraines plan was to advance with part of its forces into the industrial area from
the north and west, but the most critical task for the Ukrainian
strategy would be given to the forces in the south, who would blockade the Russian
border with the separatist regions to prevent the movement of supplies.
Ukrainian forces swept in from the south to take control over most of the border
area, but they lacked the strength to secure all of the border and could not fully prevent
the flow of the supplies. At the same time other forces began recapturing territory.
The Ukrainians had previously encircled Slovyansk and controlled an airfield near
Kramatorsk, which enabled them to force the separatists out of these locations.
The Ukrainian forces then retook Kostiantynivka and then proceeded towards Bakhmut, which they
captured with the help of an Ukrainian military garrison. The advance of Ukrainian forces now
threatened to encircle the separatist forces in the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which
prompted the separatists to withdraw from them and the Ukrainian forces took over the territory.
In the east the Ukrainian forces linked up with their forces holding on at the Luhansk
airport and took the city of Luhansk into semi encirclement. In the west the Ukrainian forces
made contact with their garrison of the Donetsk airport and advanced up to the outskirts of the
major cities of Donetsk and Horlivka. In the center the Ukrainian forces proceeded south
and captured the town of Debaltseve - a key supply node for the whole of the Donbas industrial area.
But the Ukrainian forces could not control all of the border and the flow of reinforcements
and equipment from Russia continued. The separatists had received a large amount
of Russian military equipment and used it against the Ukrainian forces on the border.
These forces suffered major damage and their supply route was cut. Ukraine had to redeploy
its forces from the north to reopen the route and pull back its troops from the exposed position.
With Ukraine losing access to much of the border, it now attempted to make a smaller
encirclement by connecting its forces on the border to those near Luhansk.
But the separatist forces counterattacked, making these positions too vulnerable. This
plan had to be abandoned and Ukraine withdrew its forces. Then Ukraine attempted to conduct
a smaller encirclement from a more safe position by moving from the southwest towards Debaltseve.
Ukrainian forces reached the town of Ilovaisk. By that time, it is believed that Russia sent large
units of its military to fight for the separatists and these forces launched a major counterattack.
They encircled the Ukrainian troops near Ilovaisk. Then the Russian and separatist
forces crossed the Russian border in the south and linked up their territories with the sea. With the
enemy becoming stronger, Ukraine withdrew its forces from under Luhansk to avoid encirclement,
but it attempted to hold on to the important transport node of Debaltseve. Nevertheless, the
Russian and the separatist forces continued the offensive. First they captured the Donetsk airport
from the Ukrainian troops and then pushed the Ukrainian forces out of Debaltseve in early 2015.
After that a ceasefire was signed, which put an end to large offensive operations.
Verdict: Ukraine failed to capture the Donbas industrial area, because
it did not have enough strength to encircle it.
Although Ukraine failed to retake the whole of the Donbas industrial area it did capture
the northeastern part of the area and this area would play a major role, when Russia
and Ukraine would enter into a full scale war in 2022. We will cover that in the next video.
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