In the east of the country, the Ukrainian forces doubled down on their use of artillery and assault drones to target Russian forces concentrations.
According to a commander of one of the Ukrainian detachments, there are still a lot of Russian troops in Klishchiyivka, which is why Ukrainians are not conducting ground attacks in this particular region. The geolocated footage showed that Ukrainian shells had been exploding in the center of Klishchiyivka. Notably, Ukrainians are not targeting the trenches on the hills, which confirms that Ukrainians did not lose control over the main fortification and successfully repelled all Russian counterattacks.
Apart from targeting forces concentrations, Ukrainian commanders discovered another notable opportunity. As the Russian command became obsessed with the goal of returning control over the fortification, they allocated troops for achieving this task at the expense of other parts of the front line – more specifically, at the expense of their positions between Klishchiyivka and Kurdiumivka.
Ukrainian forces exploited the weakness of the Russian defense here and conducted a pincer movement by attacking Russians from two sides. The storming operations were conducted by the famous 3rd Assault Brigade. They caught Russians by surprise, rapidly advanced to the enemy positons on armored fighting vehicles, and within seconds after landing, started storming Russian fortifications. They assaulted and cleared all Russian positions in the tree line.
Afterward, Russian forces shelled the whole region, attempting to inflict unsustainable losses and force Ukrainians to retreat. However, Ukrainian forces retained control over the newly gained territories.
Furthermore, Ukrainians are preparing to advance along two tree lines, one of which leads directly to the small village of Andriyivka. Even though it is very small, the village is still an extremely important Russian logistical hub. Given that Russian forces no longer can safely use the road from Bakhmut to supply Klishchiyivka, the road from Andriyivka became more important than ever.
If Russians lose Andriyivka, they would have to deliver supplies through the fields, located in the lowlands, which meant that they are visible from all Ukrainian positions, located predominantly on the hills. Based on the setting, it is clear that Russian forces will not be able to sustain their operations and will either starve or step back. Overall, the ability of Ukrainian commanders to react to the ever-changing conditions on the ground, and make new plans as they go, allowed Ukrainians to save many troops by canceling an immediate attack on Klishchiyivka, and allowed to conduct an expected operation from another direction, penetrating Russian defenses by up to 2 km.
In our daily frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
