Clément Molin
To explain geography, you have 4 rivers. The Krasna river valley, from Svatove to Kreminna, that remained under Russian control. Further west is the Zherebets river. For a long time, Ukraine had control of many positions few kilometers east of it, while it could easily shoot the Russians from the high ground behind the river. It took Russia immense losses (remember all the assaults on Terny…) to take control of the eastern side of the Zherebets and it was very difficult to climb to the western side, since only few dams, in the open, allow passage. After the Zherebets is a high ground, which Russia captured last year and is a strategic location. Further west is the small Nitrius river, which was the next stop line for Ukraine and was barely crossed by infiltrators. The last one is the Oskil/Donets rivers further east or south, that can barely be crossed.
