Battle for Lyman. Russian Maneuver Turns Into STRATEGIC DEAD END.

Today, there are a lot of interesting updates from the Liman direction.

Here, the strategic battle for Liman is intensifying as Russian forces attempt to cross the Zherebets River and push westward to seize the town. But as they stretch their supply lines thin and expose infantry columns to relentless Ukrainian drone strikes, their offensive risks collapsing before it can break through.

The Russian logistics in this section of the front are stretched thin as the Russian forces reach the east bank of the Nitrius River, over thirty kilometers away from their only logistics hub in Kreminna. Furthermore, Russian logistics are complicated by the difficulty of crossing the Zherebets River to support their assaults, allowing them to deploy only infantry-sized units without armored support.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian forces maintain stable logistical support through the larger towns of Liman and Izium, which are much closer to the front. This allows Ukrainians to quickly deploy a larger quantity of supplies, ammunition, and reinforcements during Russian attacks.

On top of that, towns and large villages like Drobysheve, Sviatohirsk, Yampil, and Oskil allow them to concentrate their active forces close to the frontline and immediately counter the Russians as soon as they launch their assaults, while Russians have only little places to gather their forces in. Geolocated footage reveals that the Russian soldiers must move on foot, exposing themselves to the detection and destruction of Ukrainian FPV drone operators. Russian soldiers must walk on foot from the Zherebets River to the frontline positions for 15 kilometers, leading to tremendous losses due to prolonged exposure and lack of protection. This allows the Ukrainians to better counter the overextended Russian forces across the Zherebets River, while the overextension itself inherently lowers the intensity of Russian attacks. 

The Russian overextension and minimal progress that led to severe losses are a result of their failure to advance directly from the east. Russian commanders have been deliberately overstating their progress in neighboring Yampolivka, falsely claiming it was fully captured.

As a result, assault units tasked with attacking Torske expected to launch a coordinated, two-pronged offensive, from both Yampolivka and the east, but quickly discovered they were advancing alone. The disjointed nature of the assaults allows Ukrainian defenders to concentrate their fire and repel each attack separately. Compounding the issue, the open terrain in the east is dominated by Ukrainian drone surveillance and precision fire, which has already destroyed hundreds of Russian armored vehicles and inflicted thousands of personnel losses. 

Meanwhile, to the south, the fighting in the Serebryanski forest is evolving with the rapid development of fiber-optic drone technology, which is being widely used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces in the area. This is because regular wireless drones are susceptible to signal disruptions in dense forests, hampering drone operations.

The use of these drones has become so prevalent here that the forest is now covered in a thin spiderweb-like layer of fiber optic wire resting on the tree tops. Combat footage from the area reveals how fiber optic drones allowed the Ukrainian drone operators to navigate through the thick forests without any signal disruptions and strike a group of Russian soldiers.

The intensification of fiber-optic drone strikes also led to the development of unusual countermeasures, such as soldiers from both sides using simple scissors to sabotage the drones by cutting the fiber-optic wires, resulting in a loss of signal and the subsequent crash of the drones.

The prevalent use of fiber optic drones also allowed the Ukrainians to disrupt Russian logistics to all three sectors of the frontline. Ukrainians use fiber optic drones to fly under Russian anti-drone netting and strike Russian supplies and reinforcements coming from Kreminna. 

Overall, the Russian forces are being overextended in the Liman direction in each sector of the front; the further the Russians push, the stronger Ukrainian defenses and logistics become, while their own supply lines weaken.

With Russian casualties already mounting due to extended supply roads and extensive fiber-optic drone use by the Ukrainians, the Russian offensive effort here is once again reaching a stall.

In the past, Ukrainians have taken advantage of this many times, retaken strongholds or disrupting offensive preparations by launching surprise assaults, as the current state of Russian forces here could once again open a window of opportunity for Ukrainian counterattacks against the overstretched Russian frontline.

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