Ukrainian counterattacks push Russians back and retake key ridge terrain

Today, the biggest news comes from Ukraine.

Here, Ukrainian forces have launched localized counterattacks across the broader Huliaipole sector. These attacks have disrupted Russian advances at a critical moment, preventing them from securing terrain needed to place Orikhiv’s main supply route under sustained threat.

Recently, Ukrainian forces have been carrying out localized counterattacks across the broader Huliaipole sector, with the tempo escalating as success builds on success. Ukrainian military observers reported that these actions pushed Russian units back by up to nine kilometers in several narrow sectors while retaking multiple small settlements along key river lines. These gains matter mainly because they are unfolding on a flank where Russian forces had already been advancing slowly toward Orikhiv.

The Russian objective was to threaten the road linking Zaporizhzhia to Orikhiv, which serves as the main supply line sustaining Ukrainian defensive forces in the area. Russian activity reflected a deliberate effort to gradually close the distance to key Ukrainian positions, to increase pressure on Ukrainian logistics over time.

The key objective in this Russian advance is a hill ridge that dominates the terrain leading to Orikhiv’s main supply road. In the topographic map, the ridge forms the highest continuous elevation point overlooking the surrounding terrain to the supply corridor, giving whoever controls it a clear observation and fire control over Ukrainian logistical movements into Orikhiv.

This matters because elevation determines whether drone operators can maintain reliable control links and clear visual feeds over long distances. Since FPV drones rely on continuous radio signals and live video feeds, terrain features such as ridges can either block or enable effective drone operations, depending on which side controls the higher ground. While fiber optic FPV’s are not limited by signal strength and can already reach deep into Ukrainian rear areas, their current launch distance of around 46 kilometers and the lack of secure forward launch positions prevent Russian forces from sustaining frequent and large-scale strikes against Orikhiv’s logistics.

If Russian forces secure this ridge, the distance to the supply corridor would shrink to roughly 25 to 30 kilometers while also providing multiple elevated launch sites with clear terrain dominance. This would allow Russian drone units to operate more frequently and from more positions, staging drones closer to the front and maintaining persistent coverage over the supply road.

From this elevated position, Russian forces could systematically target Ukrainian resupply from multiple angles and at a far higher frequency, turning Orikhiv’s main supply corridor into a constant kill zone. Over time, this would severely restrict Ukraine’s ability to move ammunition, reinforcements, and supplies into the town, gradually isolating the garrison and weakening its defensive capacity.

This would not produce a classical encirclement in which ground forces physically surround the city, but instead a logistical encirclement in which supply routes become progressively harder to use. When convoys face constant drone threat, they are forced to move more slowly, travel in smaller groups, and wait longer for safe movement windows, reducing the speed and volume of resupply reaching frontline units. As resupply becomes slower and riskier, reinforcement rotations also slow down, reducing Ukraine’s ability to maneuver or respond flexibly.

Once Orikhiv becomes logistically unsustainable, Russian forces would gain the opportunity to force a withdrawal or collapse of the defensive line, opening the way for further advances north toward Zaporizhzhia.

To counter the Russian plan, Ukraine seized the opportunity created by the Starlink disruption, which temporarily degraded Russian coordination at the exact moment they were attempting to secure the ridge. Ukrainian assault units first moved to clear forward Russian infiltrators who had been establishing positions near the high ground, weakening Russia’s ability to maintain control over key terrain.

As those forward positions were dismantled, Russian coordination in the sector deteriorated further, creating a loss of control over the immediate frontline area. Ukrainian forces then expanded their efforts, exploiting the growing disorganization to push Russian units farther away from the ridge and deeper out of their forward positions. These counterattacks increased the distance between Russian forces and the critical terrain, reducing their ability to quickly resume efforts to secure the high ground.

Overall, Russian forces had been on the verge of securing the ridge needed to establish persistent drone dominance over Orikhiv’s main supply route. Control of this terrain would have allowed them to begin isolating the city by systematically disrupting Ukrainian logistics. This, in turn, would have shaped the conditions for a wider Russian advance toward Zaporizhzhia. Losing this window has forced Russian units to fall back from the critical terrain, but their operational objective remains unchanged, and further attempts to secure this high ground are likely as they continue seeking to bring Orikhiv within sustained logistical reach.