 On the weaker east front of Army Group Kempf, the Soviet 57th Army cleared the right bank of the Donets between Chuguyev and Zmiyev, but the army command somehow could not quite bring itself to try for a full scale breakthrough.These threats had led to a request by General Werner Kempf to abandon the city on 12 August 1943.Erich von Manstein did not object, but Adolf Hitler countered with an order that the city had to be held "under all circumstances".