At the end of March he began to close the circle around the German 1st Panzer Army, in the area of Kamieniec Podolski. After lengthy negotiations, Mannstein managed to persuade Hitler to allow the encircled troops to break through. At the same time he ordered General Hube to march west, not south - as he had planned. That was the same for the Russians. From the west, the armored units of the SS and II and the II Corps came to assist with the encirclement. On April 2, Hube denied the Soviet ultimatum to surrender the encircled units and began to break in the direction of Buczacz.
