Battle of Donbas (2022)
The battle of Donbas[6][7] was a military offensive that was part of the wider eastern Ukraine campaign of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The offensive began on 18 April 2022 between the armed forces of Russia and Ukraine for control of the Donbas region.[8][9][10] Military analysts consider the campaign to have been the second strategic phase of the invasion, after Russia's initial three-pronged attack into Ukraine.[11][12]
For the larger eastern campaign, see Eastern Ukraine campaign. For other uses, see Battle of Donbas.
Russia's strategy in the sector was to encircle Ukrainian troops in the Donbas and to annex the entire Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to the Russian-backed separatist states of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR).[13][14] Russia claimed to have controlled 55% of Donetsk Oblast by 23 June 2022[15][16][17] and all of Luhansk Oblast by 3 July 2022,[18] with Russian and separatist forces controlling the cities of Mariupol,[19] Sievierodonetsk,[20] Lysychansk,[21] Rubizhne,[22] and many others.
The Russian offensive stalled in September 2022 and some of the gains were reversed after Ukraine launched its Kharkiv offensive, with Ukrainian forces recapturing the cities of Lyman and Sviatohirsk in the Donetsk region and Bilohorivka in Luhansk oblast.[23] The Ukrainian counteroffensive also stalled east of the Oskil river, and by November 2022 Russian assaults renewed in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Aftermath
Some of the gains of the offensive were reversed in September 2022, after Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast, recapturing the cities of Lyman and Sviatohirsk in the Donetsk region, and Bilohorivka, a village close to Lysychansk in the Luhansk Oblast.[208]
Military analysts Rob Lee and Michael Kofman wrote that "Ukraine's successes in Kherson and Kharkiv were largely a result of the losses it inflicted on the Russian military in the Battle for the Donbas in the spring and early summer." Despite Russia's territorial gains, they nevertheless called the outcome of the Donbas offensive a "pyrrhic victory" for Russia, citing long-term negative impacts on Russia's ability to hold the territory it gained during the offensive and the war in general.[23] Namely, Russia expended vast amounts of manpower and artillery ammunition to take territory in the Donbas. Lee and Kofman noted that Russia compensated for losses in manpower and artillery shells by introducing mobilization, but interpreted Russia's restricted artillery shelling of Bakhmut in December 2022 as a result of resources being depleted during the Donbas offensive.[23]
Ukraine's counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast largely stalled as their ground forces approached the Svatove–Kreminna line, returning to mostly positional warfare on this front by November–December 2022.[209] In early November 2022, Russia launched a renewed offensive in northern and southern Donetsk Oblast, especially on the approach to Bakhmut.[210]