Soviet troops managed to cross the Donets river and seize the bridgehead, but the German counterattacks stopped the further advance.

The Soviet command believed that German troops on the southern section of the Eastern Front were greatly weakened.

[3] So, the South-Western Front was supposed to strike three Guards Armies (1st and 8th in the main direction and the 3rd in the auxiliary) and to break the German defenses.

In addition, Soviet intelligence seriously underestimated the strength of opposed infantry divisions (especially their equipment with artillery and machine guns).

The 1st and 8th Guards Armies managed to cross the Seversky Donets River, capture new bridgeheads on the right bank and advance to a depth up to 5 kilometers.

However, the advance stopped there, because Soviet troops were unable to crack the defense system completely and so the tank units could not operate freely in a greater depth.