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Today, the biggest news comes from the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Here, Ukrainian counterattacks have begun to blunt a slow Russian push and are now forcing a rethink of Moscow’s east-to-west axis. The fighting is concentrated around two core battles that together will decide whether Russian gains translate into an operational breakthrough or Ukrainians can form a shield defending the open fields of a new Oblast.
The main Russian goal in this sector is to secure ground inside the Dnipropetrovsk region that can be used as bargaining leverage in any future negotiations and, if possible, to press westward toward Zaporizhia city from the east. Securing villages and staging areas across the administrative border would let Russian leadership claim forward momentum and create lines on the map that could be traded politically, while also opening avenues for follow-on mechanized advances if Ukrainian lines collapse.
Notably, Ukrainian defense belts in the Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions are primarily oriented to resist assaults coming from the south and the southwest. Therefore, pushing from the east allows Russian units to attempt to outflank prepared positions and exploit seams in local defenses.
However, it is important to note that at their fastest point Russian forces only advanced roughly six kilometers locally in one month; while this is faster than in all other sectors, it is still far short of operational maneuver speed, as two battles now define the immediate fighting.
In the north, Zelenyi Hai has been a grinding fight for months, as Russian forces repeatedly attack into the village to establish a foothold that would serve as a launchpad for further assaults.
Primarily, Russian forces seek to use the settlement to move into the three larger settlements of Havrylivka, Ivanivka, and Novopavlivka, who’s dispersed buildings are a prime target for Russian infiltrators to accumulate in.
Still, Ukrainian defenders have turned every attempt into a costly affair. Geolocated footage shows Ukrainian assault and mechanized companies conducting repeated clearing operations through the surrounding woodlands and hedgerows, using short, violent counter-assault combined with persistent drone reconnaissance to detect enemy soldiers and small infiltration teams before they consolidate.
Footage from Ukrainian assault units shows cleared enemy positions on the northern outskirts and localized follow-up strikes on withdrawing groups; as Ukrainians maintain a cycle in which Russian probes are exposed, engaged, and destroyed, preventing them from securing a foothold.
As a result, any incremental territorial gains by Russian units that manage to evade Ukrainian drones are consistently reduced and contested, as Ukrainian defenders hold the most ideal defensive position in the current sector, unwilling to give it up.
To the south, where Russian forces had started advancing rapidly through a series of tree lines, Ukrainian counterattacks, have recaptured Sosnivka, Vorone, and several nearby hamlets. These counterattacks were preceded by an intense coordinated artillery barrage, suppressing and eliminating Russian infantry moving unprotected in the open.
Then, mechanized thrusts led by the 23rd Mechanized Brigade together with elements of several assault battalions go on isolate enemy vanguards and cleared the path for follow-up assaults. Lastly, Ukrainian infantry began a clearing operation to consolidate the newly gained terrain, and prevent assaults from behind.
Unit footage from the 23rd Mechanized brigade shows several villages being cleared and Ukrainian flags raised as control is reasserted with minimal losses. As a result, Russian efforts in the sector have been blunted, and Russian forces have retreated from the surrounding areas to rethink their approach.
Overall, Ukrainian counterattacks in the Velyka Novosilka axis have so far done what they were designed to do: blunt forward momentum, recapture key villages, and prevent Russian staging zones from becoming secure bases of operations. However, these operations go much further than tactical displays of an active defense, as it has bought Ukrainians, drone units in particular, the necessary time to set up and start conducting operations.
With the mud season approaching, the low-laying river area will soon turn into deep mud, and the limited road networks into devastating kill zones for Ukrainian drones to wreak havoc onto.
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