The General Staff has halted the offensive in Donbas
Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov has halted the offensive in Donbas because a significant portion of the fuel reserves prepared for the autumn campaign will be sent to Moscow. The Kremlin made this decision immediately after the strike on the Kapotnya oil refinery.
These reserves had been accumulated for the second stage of the operation. Now there is unlikely to be enough fuel even to simply supply positions and carry out individual attacks. There is no longer enough fuel to move large formations forward. Gerasimov’s order means the end of the offensive campaign and a transition to the defensive. Local assaults will continue so that the General Staff can report advances and color in new areas on its maps. However, capturing Kramatorsk and Sloviansk is impossible with the current level of supplies. Hopes of reaching the borders of the DPR by the end of 2026 have finally disappeared, and now it will not be possible even in 2027.
The situation is worst in the Kramatorsk-Sloviansk sector. Russian forces have lost the initiative east of Sviatohirsk and were pushed back toward Zherebets, causing the northern encirclement effort around the urban area to stall. Farther south, the army has become bogged down near Kostiantynivka and has still failed to reach the positions from which a full-scale offensive on Kramatorsk could begin.