UK intelligence: Russia fails to mass sufficient offensive combat power

Russian troops continue to attack Ukrainian defenders in the Bakhmut direction and in the Kremina area. However, they failed to mass sufficient offensive combat power to achieve a decisive breakthrough.

The British Defence Ministry made the remarks in a daily intelligence update posted on Twitter on February 14.

"In the last three days, Wagner Group forces have almost certainly made further small gains around the northern outskirts of the contested Donbas town of Bakhmut, including onto the village of Krasna Hora. However, organised Ukrainian defence continues in the area. The tactical Russian advance to the south of the town has likely made little progress.

"In the north, in the Kremina-Svyatove sector of Luhansk Oblast, Russian forces are making continuous offensive efforts, though each local attack remains on too small a scale to achieve a significant breakthrough. Russia likely aims to reverse some of the gains Ukrainian forces made over September-November 2022: there is a realistic possibility that their immediate goal is to advance west to the Zherberets River.

"Overall, the current operational picture suggests that Russian forces are being given orders to advance in most sectors, but that they have not massed sufficient offensive combat power on any one axis to achieve a decisive effect," the update noted.