By the end of January 12, the Soviets had advanced 8-10 km in a slow but irrepressible onslaught, and the 65th and 21st Armies had largely eliminated the "Marinovsky salient" and approached the German second defensive zone on the west bank of the Rossoshká River. In order to hold this line, Paulus threw both the 14th and 24th Panzer Divisions into the Rossoszka River area.
While Rokossovsky launched his main offensive in the west, he also began to make moves in the east. In the city center and industrial area, Trikov, who had long been suppressed by the Germans, dispatched his weak 62nd Army (now only 26,486 men, 3 tanks and 234 field guns) to attack the German 100th Fighter Division and the 305th Infantry Division, retaking parts of the city. At this time, the German 305th Division and the Soviet 95th Division were still fighting fiercely in the border area between the "barricade" factory and the Volga River, and the Soviet army continued to attack and try to retake the factory area; the Soviet 45th and 138th Infantry Divisions and the 39th Guards Division, which had already captured the "Red October" factory, continued to attack a regiment of the German 79th Division and a battalion of the 71st Division to the south.
On January 10-11 alone, the German 305th Division lost 290 men. However, Trikov's "division" and "regiment" were all in name only, and they were powerless to deal a greater blow to the Germans. Take, for example, the three infantry regiments under the jurisdiction of the Soviet 95th Division:
By the end of 10 January, the 90th Infantry Regiment had only 23 men; the 161st Regiment had 43 men; and the 241st Regiment had the strongest force, with 115 men.
To the north of the encirclement, the German 16th Panzer Division and the 60th Motorized Division were also under attack by the Soviet 66th Army, which, despite its stubborn resistance, was forced to shrink slowly southward.