Dnipro-1, one of Ukraine’s volunteer regiments, released a video compiling drone footage of a Russian military camp just south of the village of Sontsevo in Donetsk region.
Two drone flights were made over the same area, two weeks apart. Over that time, the camp grew from a small collection of tents and engineering vehicles into a fully-fledged forward operating base (FOB), complete with tanks, communications equipment, personnel quarters and even new roads. This is quite clearly a base intended for a large-scale future deployment, one that could be instrumental in an assault to the west toward Ukrainian-held Volnovakha, The Daily Beast reports.
The FOB is located less than 12 kilometers from the Ukrainian front-line settlements of Granitnoye and Novolaspa. As the base sandwiched between Volnovakha and (separatist-held) Telmanovo, and would therefore play a lead role in any forthcoming Russian offensive on Mariupol, the port city on the Sea of Azov which also happens to the economic powerhouse in Donetsk region. Reinforcements from this FOB would allow separatists to mount a pincer maneuver to cut Ukrainian forces in Mariupol off from support from the north, The Daily Beast journalist Pierre Vaux warns.
