The Battle of Chasov Yar officially began, and the Russian army took Ivanivsk as the middle line and launched an offensive in three directions. Reinforcements of two mechanized brigades drawn by the Ukrainian military from the Zaporozhye direction have been put in place, and the defenses in the southern part of the canal microzone and in the eastern part of the city have been strengthened. Chasov Yar is located at an altitude of 150 meters, although the difference in terrain does not have a great impact on the battlefield situation, but it is also a tough battle for the Russian army, because from the current battlefield situation, the Russian army can only attack head-on and cannot be outflanked.
In the previous week's exploratory offensive, the Russian army's large-scale precision-guided missile bombing tactics played an important role, causing a great psychological shock to the Ukrainian defenders in Chasov Yar. But the Ukrainian army, relying on high-rise buildings in cities and towns and reinforced concrete fortresses (prefabricated concrete pieces buried deep or half-buried underground), can still organize effective defenses, and the deeper they go into urban areas, the more difficult it will be for the Russian army to attack. Ukraine is concentrating its superior forces on the frontal front in the eastern part of the city, while artillery is safely bringing fire support to the frontline defenders from the west of Chasov Yar.
As of the evening of April 9, most of the canal micro-area was controlled by the Russian army, but several high-rise buildings in the southern part of the micro-area were still firmly in the hands of the Ukrainian army. It became an observation post for Ukrainian rear artillery, guiding the Hippocampus and BM-21 rocket artillery to bombard the ground armored attack clusters of the Russian army. To this end, the Russian army invested a number of Su-34 tactical bombers and Su-25 fighter planes to carry out bombing, but the effect was not obvious. The Ukrainian army is very tough in frontal resistance, and the Russian army cannot disperse its defense capability through encirclement, which is a dead knot. And the assault means that the Russian army will inevitably pay a huge price in casualties.
If a stalemate pattern is formed on the north and south flanks of Bakhmut (Berkhivka and Krishivka), with the gradual increase in Ukrainian reinforcements, even the three-way Russian army in the Ivanivsk direction is in danger of being counter-encircled. For this reason, the Russian army on the southern Ivanivsk road has begun to use its main forces to expand the control zone to the south, so as to stabilize the bridgehead base in Ivanivsk. At the same time, based on the experience of the battle for Bakhmut, the Russian army has just transferred a large number of Spitfire tanks and BM-21 "Hail" rocket launchers.
Russia's TOS-1/1A Spitfire tank is a sharp weapon for ground attack, which can hit Ukraine's fortified defensive positions 15~20 kilometers away on a large scale. Turning the defensive zone made of reinforced concrete into a "gray zone". The so-called gray zone is completely covered by Russian artillery fire, but the Russian army does not occupy it, and through repeated and intermittent bombing, it maximizes the casualties of the Ukrainian army, and turns Chasov Yar into a "meat grinder" like Bakhmut.