First of all, it must be explained that although the "Sharp Commentary of the Great General of Stuarts" series is very pleasing to readers, Streolkov has received announcements on television in the past two days, and there is not much information from the front line, so it is naturally not written very long on vk, and there is not much news except for donetsk and Luhansk.
Former Minister of Defense of the "Donetsk People's Republic" Strelkov
Therefore, in addition to translating the brief description of the battle situation published by Lao Si at 21:37 Moscow time on the 9th and 2:37 Beijing time on the 10th, a short translation of the report of the War Research Society published by Frederick Kagan, George Baros, and Katerina Stepanenko published at 15:00 EDT on the 9th and 4:00 Beijing time on March 9 will also be inserted.
Son of Donald Kagan, Russian military research expert Frederick Kagan
General Staut described the Kiev front as follows:
The "Kiev - (right bank of the Dnieper)" front has not yet changed significantly. The two sides continued to fight in the places where the previous 4-5 days of fighting (Bucha, Ilkata, Bogdanovka, etc.).
The situation is roughly the same in the area east of Kiev.
Samui, Chernihiv, Kharkiv: There are no reports of a sudden change in the war situation.
The relevant part of the report of the Society for War Studies (ISW) is translated as follows (in view of the large number of spelling and transliteration styles of Ukrainian geographical names, the small Ukrainian geographical names mentioned in the article are translated according to the Soviet Handbook of Geographical Names translation and given the corresponding Russian original text):
The Russians may have begun to encircle and attack Kiev further, but the scale of its military operations and the degree of temporary organization (made up) exceeded the Society's expectations. It was reported that about 1 reinforced brigade had attempted to break through the western suburbs and advance into kiev, but little progress had been made. The Russians slowly consolidated the occupied areas with relatively small combat operations, and gradually extended the encirclement to the southwest of the capital. Russian combat operations close to the ground east of Kiev remained stalled, probably because the Russians were concentrating on the skillful and determined attacks of the Ukrainians, fully securing the long lines of communication from russian bases near Sumy and Chernigov to the outskirts of (Kiev) until they could launch a more concentrated and well-coordinated attack than the previous one.
The main points are as follows:
It is possible that the Russians have begun a new offensive against Kiev and continue to encircle it to the west, but not much progress has been made.
Russians near Kiev and east of the Dnieper River may be struggling to consolidate their lines of communication in response to fierce Ukrainian counterattacks and sabotage, thus creating conditions for an attack on the capital from the east.
It is unlikely that the Russians will capture Kharkov through a ground offensive in the coming days, but will likely continue to work to try to encircle and/or bypass the city.
According to the report, the Russian army launched a regimental-sized attack on March 8 and 9, which may represent the size of the Russian army's force that can be put in a one-time investment on the Kiev axis at this stage. In the next few days, it is indeed possible for the Russian army to launch a larger and more coordinated general offensive to encircle or attack Kiev, but considering that the Russian army continues to invest 2-5 battalion-level battle groups at a time, the possibility of a large-scale general offensive mentioned above will be reduced accordingly.
Conditions on the west bank of the Dnieper:
The Ukrainian General Staff reported on March 8 that as many as five Russian battalion-sized battle groups had attacked Babinzi (Бабинцы) about 25 kilometers northwest of central Kiev, but were repulsed. The area has experienced days of frequent fighting, and the former mayor of Ирпень) said on March 8 that the Russian army had taken control of a large part of the city. If the report of the Ukrainian General Staff is accurate, the situation reflected here is quite noteworthy, because since the Russian army has interrupted combat operations, reorganized and reorganized into a reinforced regiment or brigade in the previous few days, it should have made more progress. If the Ukrainian military neither overestimates the Russian forces nor underestimates their achievements, then this may support the important conclusion of the Ukrainian General Staff that the Russian army , especially those around Kiev — has largely lost its combat effectiveness and will to fight. However, the Society is not yet able to independently verify the report of the Ukrainian General Staff.
The Ukrainian General Staff also reported on March 8 that four battalion-sized russian combat groups had advanced to Yasnogorodka (Ясногорооддка, about 37 kilometers southwest of downtown Kiev. Yasnogorodka is located between the two areas to which the Russian army has advanced, as mentioned earlier by the Society, and on the road from Beshev (Бышев), which the Russians may have previously captured. The purpose of the attack may be to consolidate russian control of the southwestern passage of Kiev to some extent and to create conditions for Russian troops to assemble in this direction close to the city.
The Ukrainian General Staff also mentioned that the Russians might be ready to continue their offensive against Fastov (Фастов), an important road junction southwest of Kiev, about 22 km south of Beshev, the farthest Russian advance on this axis. The Society has not observed in the past 24 hours any sign of new Russian operations in the direction of Fastov.
The Society did not receive any news of the continued offensive of the Russian army in the area of Ivankov (Иванков), and the Ukrainian General Staff clearly reported on March 8 that the Russian army had not entered the vicinity of Demel (Дымер).
The Society for War Studies also believes that the Russian army continues to attack Chernihiv, the Sumy direction is focusing on consolidating the Samui-Kiev eastern suburbs communication line, and the Kharkov direction is still bombing, but there is no sign of large-scale ground warfare, and troops may have been transferred from Kharkov to Sumy to assist in the war.
As for the direction of Donetsk and Luhansk, Strelkov's information is more detailed:
Donetsk front:
Fierce fighting is still raging in the Iygum district and south of the city of Iyum. As for the southeast, the area of Popasna (Попасна) was still at war, and the Ukrainian armed forces apparently abandoned the town of Popasna without a fierce battle (it was not in itself suitable for long-term defense), but intended to hold out nearby.
As for the statement that "the Donetsk group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been encircled by half of it", it is not true. There are two reasons: First, there is no half group there. Second, there is no siege... It was true, however, that the Ukrainians would still be threatened by a siege, and now it was the turn of the Ukrainians to make a choice: either to follow the "model" of Mariupol and Volnovaha to put a large number of defenders in Severodontsk-Lisichansk under siege, or to hastily withdraw their troops to a new defensive line. The most likely outcome is that the Ukrainian army made the choice of "both wanting to" and using part of the defenders to hold on to another "fortress" and contain part of the army of the Luhansk People's Republic for a long time.
Azov Seaside section of the Donetsk Front:
There have been no significant changes. Volnovaha is still engaged in street fighting.2016 can be noted that Laos mistakenly believed in the front-line satellites as early as March 2, believing that the Donetsk army had easily captured Volnovaha, and that it was still a week later. As for the siege of Mariupol, the armed forces of the Donetsk People's Republic were still advancing slowly and gradually on the outskirts of the city.
The Society for War Studies did not have much information on the direction of Luhansk, and the assessment of Mariupol was similar to that of Strelkov.
As for the southern front, Strelkov admitted that he had no information:
I am ignorant of the changes in the situation around Gulia-Ipole (Гуляйполе) and in the direction of Zaporizhia.
I am also not aware of military operations in the areas of Nikolaev and Krivorog (Криво́й Рог).
The Society for War Studies cites a March 9 study by the Ukrainian General Staff that 17 battalions may have been clustered in Kherson-Rozovka (Розовка), of which some troops may rush in the direction of Zaporozhia within 48-72 hours to blockade the city from the east, and the Russians may try to land from the mouth of the Odessa and South Bug rivers in 24-48 hours.