Russian forces advance near three settlements in Donetsk Oblast – DeepState

The enemy advanced near the settlement of Yampil in the Kramatorsk district, as well as near the village of Bondarne in the Bakhmut district, according to the report.

Russian forces also made gains near Stepanivka in the Kramatorsk district of Donetsk Oblast.

On Feb. 2, analysts at DeepState said Russian forces occupied 245 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in January. That is nearly half the area seized in December or November last year.

Overall, 33% of all assaults were concentrated on the Pokrovsk sector, where Russian forces focused their main effort, analysts said. The Huliaipole sector ranked second, accounting for 21% of all attacks, with the number of assaults there increasing by 1.75 times, according to DeepState. A high share of assaults was also recorded on the Kostiantynivka (12%), Lyman (8%) and Oleksandrivka (8%) axes.

“The Sloviansk sector became the negative outlier, where nearly 20% of territorial losses resulted from just 3% of assaults,” the analysts wrote.

On Feb. 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with France 2 that Russia would have to pay an extraordinarily high price in massive personnel losses to seize Donbas and all of eastern Ukraine.

According to the president, the aggressor country would need at least two years of active combat operations, but he believes the Russian army is incapable of sustaining such an intensity of war over a long period.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said during a meeting with journalists on Feb. 5 that the active front line is about 1,200 kilometers long and that the use of drones has expanded combat formations not only along the front but also 15 to 20 kilometers in depth.

He also emphasized that Russian forces achieved no significant operational successes in January.