Russia 1 – Kupyansk/Svatove Line
Russian forces continued their attacks toward Kupyansk and claimed to advance 1.25 miles, but that has not been confirmed.
Russia 2 – Svatove/Kreminna Line
Russian forces took a beating last week trying to advance on the village of Novojehorivka (10 miles SW of Svatove) and have been taking a break as they rebuild up their forces.
Russia 3 – Avdiivka/Marinka/Vuhledar Line
Russian forces engaged Ukrainian forces along the line but made no confirmed progress.
Ukraine 1 – Liberate Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces advanced north of Bakhmut moving down the E40 highway and are now east of occupied Orikhovo-Vasylivka (7 miles NW of Bakhmut). Ukraine also claimed to have made progress in Klishchiivka (4.5 miles SW of Bakhmut) and Russian sources reported that Ukraine made some progress near Andriivka (6 miles SW of Bakhmut)
Ukraine 2 – Drive to Berdyansk
Ukrainian forces continue to focus on improving their position in this sector, rather than advance to new territories.
Ukraine 3 – Drive to Melitopol
Ukrainian light infantry has moved beyond the Russian second line of defense which consists of anti-tank ditches and dragon’s teeth anti-tank obstacles and have reached the edge of Verbove. This is more than a reconnaissance force and they intend to hold their positions. But it cannot be said that Ukraine has officially breached the second line of defense until heavy equipment is able to reach those positions. The infantry forces are holding a position along the edge of a tree-line position facing Verbove. It was also confirmed that they moved closer towards Novoprokopivka which is less than two miles south of liberated Robotyne.
Geolocated footage also reveals that Ukrainian forces have moved farther south from Kamianske than previously observed. This suggests that Russia is getting weaker in this area as well and is in danger of Ukraine moving on Vasylivka and then moving towards Tokmak from the west in addition to their current drive from the north.
Ukraine 4 – Liberate Eastern Kherson
Russia claimed to have destroyed four Ukrainian boats trying to reach the eastern shore of the Dnipro River.
Russia is unable to adequately support their frontline troops with artillery, especially now that Ukraine has better artillery with a longer range of fire. Russia has been forced to move their artillery back to save it for when Ukrainian forces advance but can no longer use it to attack Ukrainian forces on the front line. This is giving Ukrainian forces much more ease of maneuverability and the ability to clear minefields during the day. Russia is trying to increase their production of laser-guided shells to give them accuracy since they no longer can just overwhelm Ukrainian forces with artillery. But their troops are not trained in this style of artillery fire and will prevent them from implementing this new approach in the short term.
Russia launched a drone strike on Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa Oblasts overnight firing 32 drones. Ukraine shot down 23 of the drones. Those that did strike their targets hit more port infrastructure in Reni and Izmail. They also hit a grain depot in Dnipropetrovsk destroying 1500 tons of grain. Russia is trying to stop Ukraine from exporting grain, and since Ukraine has a NATO defended corridor in the Black Sea, they are forced to destroy the grain before it is loaded on ships. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia to discuss Russia rejoining the Black Sea Grain initiative, but Putin refused unless the West ends their sanctions against Russian grain and fertilizer. Russia did agree to supply African nations with 50,000 tons of grain for free, and Turkey agreed to help transport the grain. Ukraine claimed that one drone they hit fell into Romania.
Ukraine launched a drone attack against Kurchatov, Russia, hitting a building of the Russian federal police force in the city. Ukraine also destroyed an unspecified Russian ship in the Black Sea with a drone attack.
The UN International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine reported that they could not declare Russia’s war against Ukraine as an act of genocide as they did not have proof that Russia’s goal is to wipe out Ukrainians as an ethnic race. But they did conclude that Russia has committed several war crimes against civilians.
Russia called off “Zapad-2023”, its planned joint military exercises with Belarus. This is yet more evidence that Russian forces are greatly depleted. Russia is pursuing to conduct military exercises with North Korea as they are trying to woo the pariah state to supply weapons to Russia. Russia also increased the age of conscription from 27 to 30 to allow for more Russian men to be conscripted into the military.