20 Dec: IT STARTED! THE BIGGEST BATTLE OF THE WAR. RUSSIANS DEPLOY 80’000 TROOPS. | War in Ukraine

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I am Ukrainian. My country has been invaded by Russia. In this video I will tell you what happened on the six-hundred-sixty-fifth day of the war.

Day 665: Dec 20

Today, there are a lot of updates from the Chasiv Yar direction.

Since Russian forces launched their series of offensive operations, Chasiv Yar became one of their 5 main targets for the winter campaign. Chasiv Yar is a small town with a pre-war population of 12 thousand people, and it is located less than 5 kilometers away from Bakhmut.

Over the last months, Ukrainians were trying to undercut Russian forces in Bakhmut from the south and put them into an operational encirclement. During the whole campaign, Ukrainians advanced by 7 to 10 kilometers, and once the fighting reached the railway embankment, the Ukrainian progress stalled. Ukrainian fighters from the 3rd Assault Brigade reported that the main reason was that Russians deployed several divisions' worth of troops to prevent the front line from further collapse. So, Russian waves of counterattacks were never-ending, making it very difficult to maintain the momentum, especially in the face of the additional barrier in the form of the railway embankment.

In fact, an officer from the 26th Artillery Brigade reported that the number of Russian troops in the Bakhmut area recently reached 80 thousand troops. For context, this is as many as during the peak heat of the Battle for Bakhmut and twice as many as Russians had allocated for the Avdiivka offensive that is happening right now.

As the Russian offensive in Avdiivka is failing, Russian forces started increasing the number of attacks in this region instead. Moreover, a fighter from the 24th Assault Brigade reported that several days ago, Russians deployed the best-equipped motorized rifle detachments to Bakhmut, as those troops have the most modern tanks, armored fighting vehicles, radios, and other equipment. Taking all of that into consideration, it becomes obvious that Russians would launch another offensive.

Since Ukrainian forces were actively operating south of Bakhmut, Russians decided to launch their first attacks from the north. The first target of the Russian forces became Bohdanivka. Geolocated footage shows how Russians were shelling this village extensively. Ukrainian fighters reported that some trenches were shelled so heavily that the soil was basically plowed and the positions completely destroyed. Nonetheless, Russian forces did not manage to get a foothold in the region.

If we look at the topographic map, we can see that the village is located in lowlands – right in between two hills. Such a setting makes the defense of the village much easier as long as Ukrainians control the hills. That is why Russian forces increased the intensity of their attacks from Yahidne along the ridge. Russian sources released a video showing how they are using North Korean so-called golf cars to quickly deploy new assault units across the field. Russians also intensified their operations north of Bohdanivka because without these positions, taking Bohdanivka is virtually impossible. So far, Russians managed to improve their tactical position south of Bohadanivka, while all Russian attacks north of Bohdanivka have been repelled.

Soon, Russian forces also shifted their focus to the southern flank because here, Russians are lagging behind and have to retake all tactical heights that they lost during the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The main direction of their attack became the strong point north of Klishchiivka. In order to achieve it, the Russians are leveraging the forest that connects Klishchiicka and Bakhmut. This is a very smart move because this way, Russians avoid the need to attack across the rails and, if successful, can automatically recapture Klishchiivka.

Geolocated footage shows extensive Russian artillery preparations on the main Ukrainian strong point on the hill. This is the place of the most intense clashes right now, as Russians took half of the strong point north of the road while Ukrainians are holding the half that is south of the road. Simultaneously, intense clashes are happening in the so-called forest appendix. The freshest updates suggest that Russians reduced the number of attacks here, meaning that Ukrainians stabilized the front line in this sector.

Interestingly, Ukrainians fighters reported that after capturing some of the Russian fighters from the Strorm-V detachment, they discovered that these were Wagner forces.