Russia's special operation thwarted the nationalists' strike on Donbass

By noon on March 9, 2022, the concentration of Z and V units continued in the key areas of the offensive development, namely Kiev, Zaporozhye, Kharkov, Nikolaev, and according to unconfirmed information, it was also possible to complete the encirclement of the "Lugansk" part of the Ukrainian grouping in Donbass. V-units in the direction of Melovoye-Starobelsk were able to reach the border of the Kharkov region, meeting with oncoming units coming from the Russian Belgorod.

Based on the known data, we can expect the encirclement of up to 40,000 personnel of Ukrainian units, the next logical step will be to force surrender.

Fierce artillery duels have been taking place on the Donbass front in the last 24 hours, significantly exceeding the scale of the fighting in the southern and northern direction of the advance of Operation Z.

The military significance of the resulting "cauldron" is very great – its elimination will deprive the Kiev regime of half of the combat-ready units, and the Z units will receive extensive operational capabilities in the direction of Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye. A complete encirclement of Kharkov will also be possible.

In the Zaporozhye region, in addition to the previously taken control of Energodar and the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, Z units occupied Pologov and Vasilevka.

One of the powerful political results of Operation Z was the extraction of irrefutable evidence about the preparation by the Ukrainian side of an offensive on Donbass in March 2022.

According to the captured documents, which were demonstrated by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, measures to create Nazi units ready for active punitive actions and their combat coordination are ordered to be completed by February 28.

In the north-east of Kiev (Bucha, Borodyanka, Gostomel, Demidov), active offensive actions are not conducted, the accumulation of forces for the encirclement of the Ukrainian capital continues. However, local residents report the projection of the military presence of V units on the Kiev-Zhytomyr highway, which from a military point of view can already be considered controlled.

Kharkov remains in a semi-ring, Russian units continue to control the situation without getting involved in battles in urban development, fraught with unjustifiably large losses. A large number of Ukrainian nationalists remain in Kharkov itself, continuing to use "human shield" tactics.

According to a number of sources, the UAF still retains control over the city of Chuguev and the military base located there, which is being attacked by air and artillery.

The city of Izyum in the Kharkov region, for which there were fierce battles, is at least partially - according to other sources, completely - controlled. In Nikolaev, the intensity of fighting has also decreased.

The cleansing of Mariupol continues at a very cautious pace – the units of the Donetsk Republic have advanced another kilometre. The pace is due to a very dense residential development, in which the civilian population continues to be located, as well as a large number of equipped nationalist firing points, for the elimination of which it is necessary to act point-to-point. The active mining of the terrain and social facilities by Ukrainian formations, which also perform the function of a "human shield", plays its role.

The active use of the air control factor continues. The number of Ukrainian military infrastructure facilities destroyed during Operation Z reached 2,581. Among them: 90 control points and communication centres of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 123 anti-aircraft missile defence systems, 81 radar stations, 897 tanks and other armoured vehicles, 95 multiple rocket launchers, 336 artillery and mortar units, 662 units of special equipment, 84 unmanned aerial vehicles.

In general, the previously made forecast of a decrease in the intensity of hostilities in secondary areas of the Z operation, based on the tactical situation, is confirmed, due to the unwillingness of the Russian command to multiply situations in which civilians may suffer.

On the morning of March 9, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk confirmed the opening of new "Ukrainian" humanitarian corridors Energodar-Zaporozhye, Sumy-Poltava, Mariupol-Zaporozhye, Volnovakha-Pokrovsk, Izyum-Lozovaya, Vorzel, Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpen, Gostomel-Kiev. In this connection, a ceasefire was announced from 10:00 to 22:00 Moscow time.

The possibility of opening humanitarian corridors in the direction of Russia or Belarus is still rejected by the Kiev regime.