Troops that had previously been distributed along the front for defensive purposes were now assembled into strike groups to conduct the First Donbass Strategic Offensive Operation.

Stavka launched two offensives on 17 July in the Donets basin, involving part of the forces of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts: 474,220 men and 1,864 tanks and assault guns.

The Soviets established bridgeheads several kilometers deep but were stopped by a German counteroffensive led by two Panzer Divisions.

On 2 August, the Germans reached the Mius at Dmytrivka, regaining their positions after inflicting at least 61,070 casualties on the Soviets, of which 15,303 were listed as killed or missing.

The Germans were forced once again to redeploy their most battle-worthy mechanized divisions to contain this more immediate threat, which the Soviets exploited by launching a successful offensive in the Donets region on 13 August, deploying 1,053,000 men.

Thus, the total losses of the three Soviet armies participating in the Mius operation over the two decades of July and the first ten days of August 1943 amounted to 94,197 soldiers, including 22,786 killed, captured and missing.

The total losses of the three armies in the Izyum-Barvenkovsky operation amounted to 70,786 men, of which 19,029 were killed and missing, as well as lost for other reasons, 51,757 were wounded and sick.

Thus, the total losses of the 1st Panzer Army, which repelled the advance of the Southwestern Front troops, amounted to 19,930 men, of which 5,317 were KIA and MIA.