Multi-front Russian assaults on entrenched Ukrainian positions across the northeast, east, and south of Ukraine over the past week achieve only modest, temporary gains overall, according to the British Defense Ministry’s January 5 intelligence update on Ukraine.
The ministry wrote:
- Over the last week, ground combat has continued to be characterised by either a static front line or very gradual, local Russian advances in key sectors.
- In the north, near Kupiansk, Russia’s Western Group of Forces continues to conduct a large scale but inconclusive offensive operation. In northern Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine has maintained a stable front line in the face of small-scale Russian attacks around Bakhmut. In central Donetsk, Avdiivka is still heavily contested, while Russian forces have consolidated late December 2023 gains around Marinka, which saw them finally advance to the western edge of the town after nine years of combat in the area.
- In southern Ukraine, Russian airborne forces have highly likely made minimal progress in a renewed attempt to dislodge the Ukrainian bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Dnipro around the village of Krynky.
Russian troops continue multiple assaults across multiple sectors of the front for months. The initial focus of the Russian operations was on Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast.
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