Originally Posted by
NutLoose
I would imagine it’s tying down Ukrainian forces from reinforcing elsewhere, plus those troops that have come in from Belarus etc which would mean it would be difficult to redeploy them to where needed without retreating, possible reason why they are simply digging in?
Makes sense, the Russian troops there are too few to really attack, but too many to ignore, so Ukraine has to maintain a blocking force.
There was a decent rail link between Kiev and Donetsk, would expect that both sides have plans for it.