The German Army Group A captured Ulyanovsk, signaling that they had completed the first phase of Operation Barbarossa. Before taking Ulyanovsk, German Army Group C had successfully captured Bryansk, Oryol, Lipetsk, and Tambov, pushing Army Group C's defensive line dozens of kilometers farther north once more. This also meant they had moved one step closer to Moscow.
Meanwhile, after annihilating the Russian Southern Front Army, the German D Army Group advanced into Buru territory. They captured Rostov-on-Don for the second time, then swept eastward and seized Volgograd. Afterward, Army Group D halted its offensive and shifted to the defensive.
Thus, all the major German Army Groups had completed their first-phase operational objectives under Operation Barbarossa. During this phase, the German military had wiped out four Russian front armies and killed or captured more than two million enemy troops.
Although two million men seemed insignificant compared to Buru's army of over ten million, those two million were Russia's standing forces—its elite troops, no less. Even if the Russian military could mobilize more troops, the newly formed units would undoubtedly be inferior in combat effectiveness to the standing army. This had produced a remarkable result in the German military's effort to destroy Russia's living strength. The battles to come would naturally be much easier.
If Russia's winter had not been so terrifying, the German military could have continued its offensive and denied Russia any chance to catch its breath. Unfortunately, Russia's territory was too vast and its strategic depth too great. With Germany's current strength, it could not swallow Russia whole in a single bite. Moreover, German Emperor Qin Tian knew the mistakes the Führer of another world had made. Therefore, he had to avoid making similar mistakes as much as possible. He did not want to struggle for an entire lifetime,