Russians fear being caught in pincer movement

Russians fear being caught in a pincer movement by Ukrainian soldiers pushing past the first village recaptured in Kyiv’s new counter-offensive thrust.

The Ukrainian military said it was “consolidating” gains after Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, celebrated the liberation of Staromaiorske in a push into Russian-held territory.

The village, which had been under Russian control since the early months of the war, was captured after a gruelling battle.

Russian forces laid waste to the small settlement using aircraft and artillery in an attempt to slow Kyiv’s advance.

“The battle for this village was difficult and long,” Ukraine’s 35th Marine Brigade, which was involved in the fight, said in a statement.

“Every centimetre of liberation is the price of superhuman effort.”

Footage shared online showed the brigade’s marines rounding up surrendering Russian paratroopers, forcing them to lie on the floor at gunpoint.

British Mastiff armoured vehicles were among the dozens of pieces of hardware damaged in the battle, while the bodies of dead Russians lay on the ground as Ukrainian troops entered the settlement.

A second video shared by Mr Zelenksy showed the 35th Brigade holding Ukrainian flags aloft inside the remains of a battle-scarred building to confirm its capture.

“Our South. Our Guys,” the war-time leader tweeted.

In recent days, Ukrainian forces had used its advantage in long-range weaponry to pepper Russian positions in the village before eventually entering on foot.

“Using the advantage in range, practically not receiving ‘answers’, the enemy methodically rolled out Staromayorskoye (its Russian name) for several days, knocking out personnel from shelters and turning these shelters into piles of broken bricks,” Alexander Khodakovsky, the commander of the Russian Vostok battalion, wrote on Telegram.

The liberation puts Ukrainian forces within touching distance of the neighbouring village of Urozhaine, around 2km to the west.

Russian military bloggers said it would be virtually impossible for Moscow’s forces to hold onto the settlement, which sits on the TO518 highway to the coastal cities of Mariupol and Berdiansk.

Capturing either of the two Azov Sea ports are seen as a key goal for Kyiv as it would drive a wedge between Russia’s occupying forces in the east and west of the country.

Rybar, an authoritative Russian blogger, wrote that Ukraine’s troops would be able to cut off Russian forces in Urozhaine with a pincer movement from the north and west.

“The enemy’s plan in this case is obviously: the armed forces of Ukraine intend to pincer the Russian Federation armed forces,” the blogger wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Khodakovsky added: “Ukraine went on the offensive climbing to the outskirts of Staromaiorske and gradually pressing us back, at the same time creating a flank threat to positions on Urozhaine.”

Less than five miles south of the two villages lies Staromlynivka, the next apparent target for Ukrainian forces on their push towards the Azov coast, some 60 miles away from the current front lines.

The Russian-occupied village sits on high ground, handing Moscow’s forces an advantage in defending it.

The terrain also poses a major challenge to Ukrainian forces in their southern push.

But analysts suggest the route down the TO518 highway, which snakes south alongside the Mokri Yaly river, has been identified as a particular weak spot.

Satellite imagery shows the lines of defences around the towns south of Staromaiorske, the site of the first line of Russian fortifications, gradually thinning out on the approach to Russian-occupied Mariupol.

The reported progress comes alongside gains by Ukraine on its other two offensive axes around Bakhmut and the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where fighting was still focused on the small village of Robotyne.