Day 571: Sep 17
Today, there are a lot of updates from the east.
First of all, today, it was officially confirmed that Ukrainians liberated the village of Klishchiivka.
Ukrainian fighters from the 5th Assault Brigade, 80th Airmobile Brigade, and Liut Assault Brigade raised the Ukrainian flag above the village and announced that they finished the clearing operation, and that now there are no more Russians left in the village.
The Battle for Klishchiivka continued for a long time, even after Ukrainians established total control over all major fortifications and hills around the village. If we look at the topographic map, we can see that the village is located in the lowlands.
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1703455103624036400
Nonetheless, Russian commanders continued pumping reserves into the death zone because of the fear of being fired by the High Command. That is why Ukrainian fighters called Klishchiivka stinky – there were so many dead Russians just from the shelling that Ukrainian assault groups that were moving from Ivanivske could smell Klishchiivka several km away.
As mentioned previously, the Russian 72nd Brigade has reportedly been completely annihilated in this direction. The circulation of such news by the Ukrainian fighters raised a discussion inside the Russian media space, and even though popular Russian sources denied this information, less prominent analysts and Russian fighters with a platform confirmed that this is true. In fact, the former commander of the 72nd Brigade Roman Venevitin publicly verified this information himself – he called everyone that he knew, and no one picked up the phone.
He also confirmed the death of 2 battalion commanders inside this brigade. Moreover, today, Ukrainian forces liquidated the commander of the 31st Airborne Brigade that was sent to reinforce the region. The death of the Russian commander was publicly confirmed by the commander of the Vostok battalion, Aleksandr Khodakovskiy.
Recently released geolocated footage from the region shows that the last remaining Russian forces abandoned their positions in the vicinity of Klishchiivka and tried to escape the Ukrainian fire. Unfortunately for Russians, they were detected by a Ukrainian drone operator and were promptly targeted by Ukrainian artillery. Another geolocated footage shows how Ukrainians identified a Russian tank behind the railway embankment right in front of Klishchiivka. The tank was not given a chance to get to the position and open fire.
Today, Ukrainian fighters from the 3rd Assault Brigade also released a video confirming that they established 100% control over Andriivka.
The fighting for this village was very tough. The village was reduced to ruins, which is why it took time to conduct the clearing operation in the open air. At the end of the fight, Ukrainians took several units of Russians into a pocket and forced them to surrender. Ukrainians promised to give them medical care, food, and water and send for prisoner exchange as soon as possible. Russians dropped their weapons and armor and got ready to be evacuated to the Ukrainian side when something unexpected happened. The Ukrainian drone captures the moments before the disaster – the Russian artillery opened fire at the surrendering Russian troops. Several Russians were torn to pieces, several survived, and Ukrainians got away unharmed.
What is interesting is that instead of targeting the Ukrainian group that was several houses from them, Russians tried to prioritize the elimination of the traitors who refused to fight till the end. Ukrainian drone operators identified those Russians who refused to surrender and fled and hunted them down with kamikaze drones.
Right now, Ukrainians are assaulting Russian positions in the tree lines along the railway embankment north and east of Klishchiivka in order to set conditions for an attack towards the next settlement on the line – Opytne.
It was also reported that Ukrainians started launching reconnaissance-in-force operations towards Kurdiumivka, which can also become the next main axis of Ukrainian advance.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated the fighters on the liberation of Klishchiivka and Andriivka and wished them even more victories. As you remember, the President recently visited the front line and had a meeting with every brigade that is operating in the region. It seems like the President made sure that all their needs were covered, which allowed Ukrainians to complete both storming operations within one week.
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.
Read also:
