When the German army retreated across southern Ukraine without organization, in the third stage, the Japanese army in Voroney attacked the Dnieper River and surrounded the 2nd Army, while the Southwest Army and the Southern Army captured Lugansk, advanced to the Azov Sea in the south, and surrounded the A Army in Kleist and the Don River Army in manstein.

At the beginning of the operation, it was very smooth. Kursk was liberated on February 8th 1943, Kalkoff was liberated on February 6th/Kloc-0, Rostov was abandoned by the Germans on February 8th 18, and there was a gap between Army A, which now occupies a small bridgehead opposite Kerch Peninsula, and Tang Jun. The Soviet 1 Pro-Guard Corps threatened another gap between the Don River Army and the Central Army commanded by Gü nther von Kluge through Dnepropetrovsky in the attack. The Germans in Stalingrad surrendered on February 2 1943, enabling Constantine rokossovsky's Don River Army to put into new action.