Fierce battle on highway T0514, 3-ton bomb wiped out Azov Brigade
Bloody battle on T-0514 highway, 3-ton bombs of Russian army wiped out Azov Brigade, Ukraine's counterattack gamble was defeated.
Báo Khoa học và Đời sống•21/08/2025
On August 15, the bloody battle in eastern Dobropillia inflicted heavy losses on the elite 3rd Azov Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Army (AFU). Behind this defeat was the strategic T-0514 road, which connects Dobropillia with the last two Donbass strongholds of Karamatorsk and Slavyansk; and serves as the AFU’s lifeline in western Donetsk. According to an analysis by the German newspaper Bild, the core objective of the Russian campaign is to capture Dobropillia and the T-0514 highway. If these two areas fall, the AFU's supply line in Pokrovsk will be forced to rely on Pavlohrad, and the AFU's second line of defense, established in May, will be in danger of collapsing.
Recent battlefield information shows that Russian special forces have approached the Dobropillia bus station, marking a significant breakthrough in "Operation Trident" on the Pokrovsk-Konstantinovka front. According to AFU sources, they faced a massive attack by "a 100,000-strong Russian group", but Western military analysts came to a different conclusion: only a single brigade (1,500-3,000 troops) actually participated in the ground offensive. The Russian Armed Forces (RFAF) typically employ small-scale elite infiltration tactics followed by reinforcements. They first use highly mobile forces to exploit gaps, then rapidly expand their advantage once their tactical value is confirmed. This tactic created a short period of time for Ukraine to counterattack, but the risks were extremely high: before the main Russian forces arrived, the AFU had to concentrate its forces to retake the T-0514 highway, or else fall into a defensive position. The AFU General Staff quickly deployed its most elite forces: the Azov Battalion of the 3rd Azov Assault Brigade and the 1st Da Vinci Wolf Assault Brigade. These two "sharp-edged forces" coordinated an attack from the east of Dobropillia and headed towards Rubizhne, aiming at the spearhead of the Russian army.
However, the Russians had anticipated this: after capturing the Ukrainian positions, their engineering forces turned them into fortified strongholds in just a few hours and deployed a "steel storm". The Russian tactical aviation dropped three-ton UMPK guided glide bombs and anti-personnel/anti-armor cluster bombs that blanketed the battlefield. Within 24 hours, the area northeast of Dobropillia had become a slaughterhouse. The Azov battalion, overwhelmed by fire, was forced to retreat to Dobropillia. The Da Vinci Wolf Assault Brigade also suffered heavy losses. Russian military experts commented: "We no longer focus on the speed of the ground offensive, but instead on the density of firepower to destroy the enemy's will to counterattack." The operation exposed an escalation in Russian military tactics: using small-scale breakthroughs to lure out elite Ukrainian army reserves, then inflicting heavy casualties through pre-planned firefights.
This “fishing” tactic not only crushed the Ukrainian counterattack, but also weakened their best forces. Information shows that the intensity of Russian firepower on the Pokrovsk-Konstantinovka battlefield far exceeded that of the AFU. The combination of three-ton bombs and cluster bombs left Ukrainian tanks and infantry defenseless. The victories and losses on the T-0514 highway have transcended all tactical considerations and become the key to determining the outcome of the conflict in Donbass. If the AFU does not regain control of the highway in the coming days, not only will the twin cities be isolated, but the second line of defense established in May will collapse. This operation demonstrated the effectiveness of the Russian military's "elite infiltration + fire suppression" tactic, which could be applied on other battlefields in the future. The bloody battle for Dobropillia exposed the brutal logic of modern warfare: the Russians used precise strikes to lure out the Ukrainian elite, then used pre-set fire traps to inflict heavy losses on their elite forces.
As three-ton bombs exploded in the northeast of Dobropillia, and as the Azov Battalion's flag fell in smoke and fire, the battle on this strategic road marked the future of Donbass; and every inch of the T-0514 highway witnessed a new historical turning point. (photo source Military Review, Sina, Ukrinform, Kyiv Post).
According to an analysis by the German newspaper Bild, the core objective of the Russian campaign is to capture Dobropillia and the T-0514 highway. If these two areas fall, the AFU's supply line in Pokrovsk will be forced to rely on Pavlohrad, and the AFU's second line of defense, established in May, will be in danger of collapsing. 
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