Russia’s latest push toward Sloviansk has ended in catastrophe. After establishing a narrow salient near Rai-Oleksandrivka, Russian forces advanced directly into a prepared Ukrainian grey-zone trap. A swift Ukrainian counterattack completely shattered the offensive, wiping out infiltration units and halting Moscow's momentum. Despite heavy FAB glide bomb strikes, Russia's attempts to breach the formidable Donetsk Fortress Belt continue to result in massive casualties.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Russian Army Fails Sloviansk Front Line Offensive
01:05 - Russia Builds Kalenyky Salient Near Sloviansk
02:15 - Ukraine Counterattacks Russian Forces at Rai Oleksandrivka
03:30 - Russian 3rd Combined Arms Army Stalled in Kill Zone
04:45 - CSIS Reports Russia Advances Only 90 Meters Daily
06:00 - Ukraine Digs 3,800 Kilometers of Drone Trench Defenses
07:15 - Russia Launches FAB-250 Glide Bombs on Sloviansk
08:30 - Donetsk Fortress Belt Defends Sloviansk and Kramatorsk
09:45 - Battle for Lyman Controls Strategic Highway Access
11:00 - Russia Loses 42,860 Troops for Minor Gains
12:15 - Will Putin Mobilize 500,000 Troops for Donetsk?
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SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/WVFxZKPQ
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Russian Army Fails Sloviansk Front Line Offensive
01:05 - Russia Builds Kalenyky Salient Near Sloviansk
02:15 - Ukraine Counterattacks Russian Forces at Rai Oleksandrivka
03:30 - Russian 3rd Combined Arms Army Stalled in Kill Zone
04:45 - CSIS Reports Russia Advances Only 90 Meters Daily
06:00 - Ukraine Digs 3,800 Kilometers of Drone Trench Defenses
07:15 - Russia Launches FAB-250 Glide Bombs on Sloviansk
08:30 - Donetsk Fortress Belt Defends Sloviansk and Kramatorsk
09:45 - Battle for Lyman Controls Strategic Highway Access
11:00 - Russia Loses 42,860 Troops for Minor Gains
12:15 - Will Putin Mobilize 500,000 Troops for Donetsk?
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/WVFxZKPQ
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00Russia isn't learning its lesson. Once again, Putin has ordered his troops to march into Slovyansk.
00:07That settlement is a hellscape. A death zone. It's where Russian soldiers go to die,
00:13as their leader orders them to smash their bodies against a town that never sleeps.
00:17And it happened again. Ukraine set the trap. Russia thought it broke through the Slovyansk
00:23front line, only for that trap to spring shut. Ukraine broke every Russian soldier that was
00:28ordered to charge straight into hell. Russia's Slovyansk disaster started with yet another
00:34push. From August 1st through to August 2nd, Russia launched a string of offensive operations in the
00:40Slovyansk direction, relying heavily on advances it had made previously to form a sort of salient
00:46in the Slovyansk direction. The assault doesn't seem to have been on the town itself. Combat maps
00:51demonstrate that this offensive likely took place about 15 kilometers outside of Slovyansk. However,
00:57that distance is important. It means that Russia has placed Slovyansk in artillery range. And it also
01:03means that Russia can use its FPV drones to assault the town and attempt to create a kill zone of
01:08its
01:08own just outside of the settlement's borders. So the Russian strategy was simple. Build on the salient
01:15that it had already created and attempt to advance under the cover of its own FPV drones. That salient,
01:21which is a word used to describe any military position that projects into the territory of the
01:25opposition, was the key to the Russian assault. Established in the region of Kaloniki, it pushes
01:31into the gray zone around Slovyansk, in which both Russian infiltration units and Ukrainian units have
01:36established positions. Nobody truly occupies the gray zones. Stretching for several kilometers,
01:42these zones are where much of the fighting takes place, only it's not the kind of fighting that you
01:46would expect. There are no big frontline pushes or large-scale mechanized assaults taking place.
01:51What tends to happen is that Russian units infiltrate and Ukrainian units conduct search
01:57and destroy missions. Drones are everywhere. And it's into one of these gray zones that Russia had
02:02established the salient in the Slovyansk direction. On one hand, this salient was a good thing for
02:07Russia. It represented a break in the front lines that Russia could exploit. Running along a road,
02:12it allowed them to advance up and down a forested strip of land outside Slovyansk, offering good cover.
02:18That aids logistics. It means that Russia can move soldiers and supplies closer to the front before
02:23both have to enter the gray zones to attempt assaults on Slovyansk. From the salient, Russian
02:28infiltrators can sort of diffuse out into the gray zone territory, where they attempt to establish
02:32bulkheads into which other troops follow, thus widening the salient to punch a larger hole through
02:37the front lines. That's what Russia was attempting near Slovyansk. Only there's the whole,
02:42on the other hand, aspect that was at play. The salient was important, sure,
02:46but it also meant that Russia only controlled a two-kilometer-wide area, through which all
02:51soldiers and resupply efforts had to pass. That area was within range of Ukraine's drones and
02:56artillery. Plus, the salient comes with other issues. Russia's forces had pushed through the
03:01front, but that also means that Russia's moving through the salient are surrounded on three sides.
03:07All that Ukraine has to do to track Russia's movements through this salient is deploy some of
03:11its legions of reconnaissance drones. Cover could help Putin's soldiers, but not for long.
03:16The eyes in the skies were always watching, and they registered Russia attempting to prepare an
03:20assault on Slovyansk via this salient. Ukraine continued to watch. It waited for the perfect
03:26opportunity. Then Ukraine struck. The Institute for the Study of War, or ISW, delivers the details
03:33that we have. Ukraine launched a brutal counterattack in the Slovyansk area, likely focused on the salient
03:38and the Russian forces trying to push on from the battlefield bulge. That counterattack took place near
03:44at Rai Aleksandrivka, and it's been confirmed to have taken place by Russian military bloggers,
03:49the ISW reports. The result was the complete shattering of the Slovyansk offensive that Russian
03:55troops were preparing. By the end of Ukraine's counterattack, Russia was pushed back from the
03:59gray zone, making absolutely no advances while likely losing some of its infiltration units.
04:04The salient effort was blunted, and Russia was devastated. That salient effort was actually one of the
04:10more impressive examples of a Russian advance that we've seen in the last couple of years.
04:14Impressive is a relative term here. Still, Russia's forces had managed to push forward about six
04:19kilometers towards Slovyansk in around two weeks, which is a pace of advance that far outstrips anything
04:24else that has been happening on the front lines in recent months. It's not huge, none of Russia's
04:29current advances are, but it was enough to create the potential for an assault, and Russia tried to
04:34fulfill that potential. Ukraine stopped Putin's soldiers in their tracks, lured them into a trap
04:39of their own making before striking against the salient. Russia once again failed to learn the
04:44Slovyansk lesson. This settlement, along with everything that surrounds it, is an absolute
04:49hellscape for Russia's forces. Still, they attempt to push forward. Putin demands it. But not even
04:54Russia's desperate attempts to use glide bombs to change the Slovyansk situation are working the way
04:59the Kremlin expected. Slovyansk has been a target for a long time. As far back as March 30th, the
05:05new voice of Ukraine was reporting that Russia's grand spring offensive, which was supposed to set
05:09the stage for the collapse of Donetsk later in 2026, had stalled out just outside of Slovyansk.
05:15Russia has been trying to advance from the east, only to run into the brick wall of a vast Ukrainian
05:19kill zone loaded with trenches, barbed wire, and a seemingly endless supply of drones. The situation had
05:26left Russia with only one option to conduct an assault on the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk urban area.
05:32What was meant to be an assault from all sides on that region had devolved into Russia simply
05:36throwing cannon fodder from its third combined arms army into the kill zone. There was no supporting
05:41action from the flanks. There still isn't, as we see from the salient that was surrounded on all sides
05:46by Ukraine. Analysts at the time said that Russia's decision to attempt to advance without this
05:51supporting action on the flanks would lead to extremely high losses in return for minimal
05:56gains. Those analysts were right on the money. By July 1st, the Center for Strategic and
06:01International Studies, or CSIS, had gathered enough data to highlight just how pitiful Russia's rate
06:07of advance with this strategy had been. The outlet noted that the period between December 2025
06:11and June 2026 has seen Russian forces advance just 15 kilometers in the Slovyansk direction,
06:17achieving a daily rate of advance of about 90 meters per day. You don't need to be Usain Bolt to
06:23cover
06:23that distance in about 10 or 15 seconds if you're running, but Russia took an entire day to move
06:28forward by that amount for over six consecutive months. And even then, Russia's forces still remained
06:35about 20 kilometers east of Slovyansk itself. Based on that rate of advance, it would take Russia
06:40another 222 days just to get to the outskirts of the city. In other words, it won't be until
06:45the beginning of 2027 that Russia will be in a position to actually attempt a true assault.
06:51And every time we see something like what just happened in early August, Russia's forces get set
06:55back. Military analyst Clement Molan summed up the situation outside Slovyansk and across much of the
07:01front well in a July 31st post on X where he said that the fields of eastern Ukraine are starting
07:06to
07:06look like a chessboard. Trenches are everywhere, along with other fortifications that have essentially
07:11divided the territory outside of Slovyansk into separate squares that Ukraine has transformed
07:16into drone-infested kill zones. In 2026 alone, Ukraine has dug more than 3,800 kilometers of
07:23these trenches and it's likely digging more. Every trench is in place to stop Russia from advancing
07:28using tanks and armored vehicles. Soldiers have to infiltrate on foot and they need to navigate
07:34these trenches to get to where they've been ordered to go. What Ukraine has created is
07:38a chessboard of defenses. Each square is loaded with drones that strike any Russian soldiers they
07:43see. We assume there will also be other defenses, such as artillery that strikes once Russian soldiers
07:48have been funneled into position by the trenches, along with search and destroy squads that are
07:52constantly on the hunt. This is the situation that Ukraine has created outside of Slovyansk.
07:57Trap after trap after trap, and all Russia's forces can do is bungle from one to the next.
08:03With the failure of the most recent attempts to advance under its belt,
08:06Russia is being forced to rely on a tried-and-true strategy to try and create more favorable
08:10conditions. Glide bombs are being launched en masse. That's according to the ISW, which reports on
08:16comments from the Slovyansk military administration head Vadim Lyak, who says that Russia carried out a
08:22Fab 250 glide bomb strike against Slovyansk on the morning of August 2nd, likely to support the
08:27attempted assault that Ukraine's counterattack shut down. This isn't a new strategy for Russia.
08:32The use of glide bombs also isn't just about attempting to shape the battlefield. Russia wants
08:37to cause as much chaos as it can with these weapons, and it's happy to kill civilians in
08:41order to do it. Just a week or so before Russia's assault failed, RBC Ukraine reported that Russia
08:47unleashed a trio of glide bomb strikes against Slovyansk in 24 hours by July 24th, injuring 16
08:53people in the process. A child was among those injured. And that's the point for Putin and his
08:57army. If they can't advance on the ground, they will terrorize from the skies. Frankly,
09:02this seems to be the only truly effective strategy that Russia has left. But glide bombs didn't help
09:07Russia's ground forces on August 1st and 2nd. Ukraine dispatched those forces, blunting the
09:13salient and sending Russia back to the drawing board. It's clear at this point that any assault
09:18on Slovyansk means death for Russia's troops. So the question has to be asked,
09:23why does Putin keep ordering these assaults? There is a good answer to that question that
09:27we'll reveal in a moment.
09:28But before we do, this is a reminder that you're watching The Military Show. If you haven't subscribed
09:33yet, now is the perfect time to hit the button and enable notifications so you don't miss any of our
09:38videos. Slovyansk is important for a simple reason. It's part of the Donetsk fortress belt that Russia
09:44needs to destroy if it's to capture Donetsk and by extension the wider Donbass region that Putin has
09:50wanted ever since he launched his campaign of aggression in 2014. This belt is a concentration of
09:55four cities that run in a 50-kilometer line along the H20 highway in Donetsk.
10:00Before Putin launched his invasion, these four cities had a combined population of 380,000 people,
10:06with Slovyansk being the larger of the four, with a pre-war population of 105,000, the ISW reports.
10:13Ukraine has spent well over a decade fortifying all four of these cities, ever since Putin launched
10:18his campaign of aggression in 2014. Each is laden with defenses to the point where taking the fortress
10:24belt will be much harder than any other strategic gain that Russia has made since its initial advance
10:28in February and March 2022. Combined, the fortress belt region is over seven times larger than Bukhovsk,
10:34which Russia took well over a year to capture, and about four times larger than Bakhmut, the battle
10:40for which was among the bloodiest that we've yet seen during the war. Beyond that, Slovyansk serves both
10:46symbolic and strategic purposes for Russia. It was in this city that Putin was able to establish his first
10:51pro-Russian bridgehead in 2014, DW reports. Local separatists were even able to briefly take control
10:58of Slovyansk with the help of Russian intelligence back in 2014. For Putin, that makes Slovyansk the
11:03proof of his constant claims that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, and that Ukraine wants
11:08to become part of Russia, with only the regime in Kyiv holding it back. To take Slovyansk would mean
11:14completing the work that Russia started more than a decade ago. In the wider context of the war that has
11:20raged for four and a half years, which itself disproves all of Putin's symbolic claims, Slovyansk also
11:25offers access to the M03 highway. That highway links Kyiv to Kharkiv and then onto Donetsk and ultimately
11:32into the Russian region of Rostov-on-Don. If Russia is able to gain control over this highway, it can
11:37cut off
11:37Ukraine's access to the northwest of the country, leaving Slovyansk isolated and preventing Ukraine from using that
11:43highway to shuttle in troops and supplies to Donetsk. Ukraine would also struggle to rotate
11:48soldiers out of Donetsk, allowing Russia to batter away its increasingly exhausted defensive forces.
11:53With all of this in mind, it makes sense that Russia continues to launch assaults in the direction of
11:57Slovyansk, even with all of the deaths and the repeatedly being caught in traps when it believes it's
12:02broken through the front lines. The Russian plan is simple. First, it takes Liman, which the Russian news
12:07agency TASS claimed was captured at the end of July. From Liman, Russia pushes into and through Slovyansk,
12:13which in turn gives Russia the ability to launch assaults against Kramatorsk. Russia claims it has completed
12:18step one of this strategy. However, an August 4th report in Euromiden Press suggests otherwise. As is so often
12:25the case when Russia claims to have captured a settlement, what really seems to be happening is that
12:29infiltration units have penetrated, but full control is far from established. Russia is still far from established in
12:36Liman, claims the spokesman of Ukraine's joint forces, Viktor Trehubov. And until Russia is established,
12:42any attempt to assault Slovyansk will end the same way as the attack on August 1st and 2nd,
12:47because Russia doesn't have the launch pad it needs for successful assaults against the fortress
12:51belt city. So that's Russia's Slovyansk situation right now. It will continue to launch assaults,
12:57but it's still a very long way away from even being close to reaching the city's borders,
13:01never mind capturing it. We could look at this as a microcosm of what's happening in Donetsk
13:06as a whole. After all, the situation is the same. Russia pushes, but doesn't get all that far.
13:11Russia's plan is to occupy all of Donetsk by the end of 2026. That plan lies in tatters because its
13:17advances are so ludicrously slow that it will be lucky to have even reached the edge of Slovyansk
13:22by the end of the year, never mind capturing the rest of the fortress belt cities that need to fall.
13:27We touched on how trudging the Russian advance toward that city has already been. In Donetsk,
13:32and Ukraine as a whole, the situation looks even worse. In its August 1st assessment of
13:37the Russian campaign during July, the ISW noted that Russia has managed to advance a
13:41whopping 37.8 square kilometers in Ukraine, achieving an average of 1.22 square kilometers
13:48per day. For context, that's an area smaller than Manhattan, the think tank points out.
13:53There was some good news for Russia in that July was the second month in a row that Putin's forces
13:58managed to achieve a net territorial gain in Ukraine. June offered a similar yet smaller
14:03advance of 30.02 square kilometers, while April and May combined to see Russia lose almost 400 square
14:10kilometers of territory. So Russia is still trying to catch up to the losses it experienced earlier in
14:152026. So far it's about halfway to covering its April losses. That isn't a good look for the nation
14:21that is supposed to be on the offense and raging through Donetsk. The pathetic rate of advance is cast
14:26under an even harsher spotlight when you take Russia's July losses into account. On August 3rd,
14:31the Kyiv Independent reported that those losses amounted to 42,860 soldiers killed or wounded,
14:38which is a high watermark and then some for 2026. The previous high came in June when Russia lost 39
14:45,290
14:46of its soldiers. What this means is that Russia sacrificed over 1,130 of its soldiers for every
14:52square kilometer it occupied during the month. The fortress belt is clearly doing its job.
14:57And as we saw on August 1st and 2nd, Slovyansk's defenders are brutally effective.
15:01As for Donetsk as a whole, capturing the region by the end of 2026 is an impossible goal.
15:07The only way that could happen is if all of Ukraine's defenders simultaneously decided to
15:11simply stop fighting. And given the incompetence of Russia's soldiers, we're not even confident that
15:16laying down arms would be enough for Russia to take the fortress belt by the end of the year.
15:20Insults aside, the rate of advance that we've seen in June and July is so slow
15:24that open source intelligence analyst Deep State says that Russia won't even be able to
15:29capture Donetsk in 2027, never mind 2026. The only thing that seems to be capable of
15:35changing this dreadful forecast for Russia is if Putin follows through on the rumors that he is
15:39preparing to mobilize 500,000 Russian soldiers following the September State Duma elections.
15:45That's the sorry position that Russia's leader now finds himself in.
15:48He can't take Donetsk when he said that he would, and the only way he could make that impossible
15:53plausible was to be doing the one thing that he has repeatedly promised that he wouldn't do.
15:58None of this helps the soldiers that Russia just sacrificed near Slovyansk.
16:02They were ordered to charge into hell, and hell is exactly what they found.
16:06However, Ukraine's Slovyansk counterattack offers just the smallest hint at what's really
16:10happening to Russia's Donbass front line. That line is on the verge of collapse, as Russia loses up to
16:16two battalions every day to Putin's obtuse obsession.
16:20The Russian army is failing to capture Donetsk. You can find out just how bad that failure is if you
16:25watch our video. And if you enjoyed this video, remember to subscribe to The Military Show,
16:29where we analyze the reality of what's happening in the Ukraine war every single day.
16:34And thank you for watching.
16:35I'll see you next time.
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