Chasov Yar is a small town west of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, about 66 kilometers from the capital city of Donetsk, with a total area of 18 square kilometers and a population of just over 10,000 people. Although this small city founded in 1876 has a long history, it has not been known before, and a conflict between Russia and Ukraine has made the name of this small city of 10,000 people almost spread all over the world!
The reason for this is that although the Chasov Yar is small in size and small in population, its geographical location is very important. If we open the map, we can see that this Chasov Yar is located exactly on the middle high ground between Bakhmut (Artemsk) and the cities of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. The west side of Chasov Yar is the line of the so-called "Slavyansk urban agglomeration" in eastern Ukraine, which is more densely populated and rich in resources.
It is precisely because of this that after the Ukrainian army lost Bakhmut last year, it has established relatively complete defense facilities on the Chasov Yar Heights under the guidance of NATO military advisers, hoping to rely on the topography of the highlands to give Chasov Yar the effect of "Slavyansk Shield". Once upon a time, NATO military advisers also boasted about Haikou, saying that the Chasov Yar defense line "can withstand the Russian army for at least half a year", but now under the fierce offensive of the Russian army, the relevant parties of the Ukrainian army have admitted that the place is very likely to be able to hold on for only three months. However, for now, it is very likely that the loss of Chasov Yar will be known within a month.
Compared with Bakhmut and Avdiivka, the urban area of Chasov Yar, which had a population of just over 10,000 before the war, is not large, and most of the buildings in the city are low-rise. There are several industrial and mining enterprises scattered near the city, such as the Chasov Yarsky Refractory Factory, but the scale of the industrial zone is far less than that of some large cities in eastern Ukraine that the Russian army has taken before.
What's more, now the Russian army has changed its tactics and has begun to use a large number of gliding guided bombs known as "building demolition artifacts" in eastern Ukraine, and the battle of Chasov Yar is no exception. It is said that the Russian army has dispatched a number of aircraft, including Su-25 attack aircraft and Su-34 fighter-bombers, to launch a large-scale bombing of Chasov Yar, and the huge FAB-500-54 and FAB-1500-54 bombs have destroyed many Ukrainian positions before the Russian army attacked. What's even more unbearable for the Ukrainian army, after the bombardment, the Russian army is not in a hurry to attack, but will dispatch drones to conduct reconnaissance and evaluate the effect of damage, and if the Russian army thinks that the effect is not enough, then it will send bombers or rocket artillery to supplement the bombing.
Such tactics show at least two points, first, the Russian army firmly grasps the air supremacy in the eastern region of Ukraine, otherwise the plane with such a heavy bomb will not fly fast at all, and it will be easy to be shot down; second, the Russian army is not short of ammunition at all, so that it can be "made vigorously", and the Ukrainian army is basically inexplicable for such a way of fighting at present, unless the F-16 really sorts out to seize air supremacy and suppress the Russian artillery fire in the rear.
According to the information that is now known, this set of tactics of the Russian army is relatively successful, and at present, after the large-scale bombardment, the Russian army has dispatched armored troops to quickly assault the Ukrainian army's position in the eastern part of the city of Chasov Yar near the Russian-controlled area, and formed a salient in this area, which is quite a bit of "single-knife direct entry" meaning. A large number of Russian troops have moved forward in this direction, with a tidal offensive, quickly approaching the positions of the Ukrainian army in the city, and the distance has now been narrowed from 1,000 meters to 500 meters, and it is expected that the most fierce battle to capture the city will soon be in full swing.
The Ukrainian side's view of the situation in Chasov Yar is actually not optimistic, according to the statement of Igor Rabin, a retired major of the Ukrainian army, he feels that the Ukrainian army will not be able to hold Chasov Yar. Igor Rabin has publicly stated that Chasov Yar is "dead" and that his fate is the same as that of Bakhmut and Avdeyevka. The retired major's point of view is actually not unreasonable, after all, on the one hand, a large number of fortifications in the city of Chasov Yar have been damaged by the Russian army, on the other hand, the morale of the Ukrainian army is low, the fighting spirit is not high, and the losses are indeed not small, and it is not easy for a small city in Chasov Yar to hold on to itself. At present, the Ukrainian army has publicly admitted that the Russian army is encircling and attacking the city "at all costs", and judging from the current situation, the probability of the city changing hands is indeed very high.
However, there have been examples of the Russian army rushing forward with armored forces and finally being surrounded and defeated by the Ukrainian army, and it is still too early to say that the Russian army will capture Chasov Yar in a short time.