Day 539.
The Ukrainian General Staff finally confirmed that Ukrainians established total control over Urozhaine on the southern frontline toward Berdiansk, Donetsk Oblast.
The Ukrainian 35th marine brigade, primarily responsible for the operation, released a video showing how Ukrainians enter and raise the Ukrainian flag above the village.
Russian sources reported that Ukrainians did not stop there and almost immediately started attacking the next village Zavitne Bazhannia.
Recently released geolocated footage shows how Ukrainian drone operators took advantage of the Russian retreat and hunted down several armored fighting vehicles on their way to Zavitne Bazhannia.
The second armored fighting vehicle used a different road to avoid getting into the controlled zone. However, it turned out that Ukrainians also established fire control over this road, so the vehicle was destroyed.
Russian sources released footage showing how the Russian Air Force dropped several bombs on Staromaiorske and Urozhaine to prevent Ukrainians from advancing on Zavitne Bazhannia.
However, taking Zavitne Bazhannia is not currently the main goal of Ukrainians. As we have seen repeatedly on this front line section, Ukrainians never pushed into the lowlands first.
If we look at the topographic map, we can see that Zavitne Bazhannia is located precisely in the lowlands.
Given such a setting, the main goal of Ukrainians is to expand their control over hills east and west of the river to force Russians to abandon the settlement virtually without a fight.
Recent geolocated videos show that Ukrainians targeted Russian ATGM positions east of Urozhaine and destroyed Russian reinforcement in the region.
This is a strong indicator that Ukrainians are preparing to move into this region next.
Some Russian sources noted that Ukrainians conducted a reconnaissance-in-force operation north of Novodonetske. As a result, Russians lost control over at least one strong point south of the river, which means that the settlement is currently in a salient, so Russians are very vulnerable.
In the meantime, Russians continued striking Ukrainian ports and blocking ships from entering Ukrainian waters to prevent grain export.
Today Russians once again struck the harbor in Reni, which is on the Romanian border. Even though Ukrainian air defense shot down most drones, some still managed to hit the grain terminals and destroy thousands of tons of grain.
On 14 August, the target of the Russian strike became Odesa. Besides destroying the harbor’s infrastructure, Russians also struck an oil depot and a local supermarket.
Recently, one ship tried to enter the Ukrainian harbors despite Russian threats. As a result, Russians opened warning fire and then sent a helicopter Ka-29 with an assault squad to search the ship.
There was nothing on the ship connected to weapons, so they had to leave it alone.
In the meantime, Ukrainians conducted a HIMARS strike on a Russian Black Sea base. The base is located on the southern shore of the Kherson Oblast.
The base was a training camp, and Russians were at the shooting range when they got hit with HIMARS. After dozens of soldiers were killed and wounded, the rest tried to hide in the buildings.
This was the second target of the HIMARS crew on Russians. Interestingly, this is already the second case when Ukrainians freely send reconnaissance drones along the shore and destroy unsuspecting Russian troops.
Even after Ukrainians wiped out five camps on the Dzharylchah Island, Russians still failed to adjust and did not take steps to decrease forces concentrations in the region.
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.
