Day 537.
After Ukrainians broke Russian resistance in front of Oleshky and established a powerful bridgehead, Ukrainians shifted their focus to the northern part of Kherson Oblast.
The main goal of Ukrainian forces is to drive Russians away from the river’s eastern bank, gain as many footholds as possible, and set conditions for a much more comprehensive attack.
The first thing Ukrainians did was undermine Russian defensive capabilities on this front-line section.
Geolocated footage shows massive explosions in Nova Kahovka, Kherson Oblast.
Later, Ukrainian military officials confirmed that Ukrainians had successfully destroyed a Russian command post. This is extremely important because Russians are controlling from here the whole region.
Ukrainians started targeting Russian reserves. By destroying Russian reserves, Ukrainians were making sure that Russians would not be able to react to unexpected developments and block Ukrainian advancement.
Recently, Ukrainian reconnaissance drone operators detected that Russians were again using columns to move through the region.
Ukrainians once again exploited this opportunity, tracked them down, and destroyed Russian reinforcements.
The next logical step became destroying Russian ammunition depots. The first target of the Ukrainian strike became an ammunition depot near Krynky, Kherson Oblast.
But the most significant strikes happened in Oleshky, Kherson Oblast. Ukrainians destroyed two ammunition depots in one strike.
The explosion was much more powerful, indicating that Russians lost tons of ammunition and equipment.
Ukrainians evaluated the situation and identified a weak spot in the Russian defense near Kozachi Laheri, Oleshky region, Kherson Oblast [the incursion here took place on 9 August – Ed.]
Geolocated footage shows that Ukrainians tracked down and destroyed Russian reconnaissance teams operating in the region, significantly diminishing understanding of the situation in this sector.
Ukrainian sources reported that Russians, including a high-ranking officer, lost up to 17 troops killed in action.
In preparation for the ground operations, Ukrainians conducted intense artillery preparation on the Russian positions in and around the village, undermining the Russian defense.
Ukrainians also unleashed their kamikaze drones to target whoever remained in the trenches on the zero line. Later at night, Ukrainians conducted an amphibious operation and assaulted Russian positions on the river’s eastern bank. Some sources reported that Ukrainians used seven boats and 50 troops in total.
This was enough to breach the primary line of defense and advance by up to 1 km within hours. Everything happened so quickly that the battalion commander did not understand where his forces disappeared. He went to check on them but got right into the Ukrainian trap. As it turned out, Ukrainians effectively jammed communication and swiftly captured not only Russian positions and many Russian soldiers, including the battalion commander.
Not many sources have reported on this essential piece of news, even though some sources already released footage confirming that the Russian commander was successfully taken into the Ukrainian rear.
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.
Such cross-river raids are quite common for Ukraine’s forces, as Israeli-Ukrainian military expert Yigal Levin recently explained:
Analyst: Ukraine constantly conducts Israeli-style raids into Russian territory
