Day 930
On 11 September, there are a lot of interesting developments in the Pokrovsk direction.
Here, Ukrainians brought the Russian offensive to a grinding halt while an intense battle broke out over the railway bridge in front of Selydove.
To increase the pressure on the Russian lines even more, Ukrainians unleashed a new flamethrower drone to burn the Russians out of their trenches.
The main goal of the Russian Pokrovsk offensive was to break through Ukrainian defense lines and march on the cities of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad.
Pokrovsk is an important Ukrainian logistical center with a direct supply line to Ukrainian units fighting in Chasiv-Yar, Toretsk, and Niu-York. To launch an attack on Pokrovsk and secure their southern flank, Russians must fully break through two important Ukrainian defensive lines in a series of major towns south of Pokrovsk.
Ukrainians suffered from a large disparity in forces compared to the Russians, and a disorganized command and control structure left them with no coordinated defensive effort. The Ukrainian high command recently visited the Pokrovsk direction in person to reorganize the defense and stabilize the situation.
Simultaneously, Russian forces sustained high losses during their offensive efforts and quickly ran out of reserves to attack Ukrainian lines. Russian military bloggers state that Russian units in the Pokrovsk direction have become increasingly understaffed and that Russian soldiers are becoming increasingly exhausted but are forced to continue attacking Ukrainian lines anyway.
It is likely through the Ukrainian high command taking direct control over the situation and the increasing Russian losses and exhaustion that Russians have not made any significant territorial advancements in over a week.
Russians stated that their rapid rate of advancement had stopped because Ukrainians had moved reinforcements in from the Kursk direction. Russians noted the presence of several mechanized brigades that had been redeployed.
However, these brigades had been fighting in this direction since the fall of Avdiivka, which means Russians were likely trying to deflect from the reality of the situation. With rapid gains out of the question, Russians have resorted back to positional warfare, launching direct frontal assaults on the Ukrainian fortress towns. Ukrainians, in turn, are managing an active defense, counterattacking vulnerable Russian advancements and positions.
Ukrainians also deployed a new type of drone here. They shared footage of an FPV- or heavy octocopter drone being mounted with a canister filled with thermite that burns at around two thousand five hundred degrees Celsius. Ukrainians used these drones to fly directly over Russian tree lines, detonating Russian ammunition from the intense heat and removing burnable objects that could be used as cover, such as trees, bushes, and netting.
Ukrainians also launched a series of physical counterattacks, pushing Russians out of Krasnyi Yar and undermining their attempted envelopment of Hrodivka.
Geolocated footage also shows how Ukrainians launched an assault on Halytsynivka, deploying an assault group here that prevented Russians from directly assaulting Ukrainians in the Nevelske salient from behind.
An intense battle broke out over the railway bridge before Selydove. Geolocated footage shows how Russians moved in an armored personnel carrier to deploy an infantry assault group at the dachas in front of the Ukrainian town.
A Ukrainian tank swiftly destroyed both the armored vehicle and the Russian assault group before moving up to fire on Russian positions on the other side of the railway embankment. Later, Russians tried again but met the same fate, as Ukrainian tanks continued to destroy any Russian attempt to advance further into the dachas.
The Russians gave up and decided to block the railway bridge so Ukrainian tanks would stop harassing their positions. Russians even tried to park a tank directly under the bridge, but the tank crew was chased off and finished by Ukrainian FPV drones before they could disable it. Ukrainians then sent in a tank crew, who quickly jumped into the vehicle and drove off with it, later releasing a video elaborately showing off their newly gained prize.
Later, Ukrainians used an armored recovery vehicle to open up a path through the railway bridge, while Russians used a precision-guided air-to-ground missile to destroy it two days later. Nevertheless, Ukrainians reportedly re-established a presence in the southern part of Mykhailivka. Maintaining a presence here allows Ukrainians to create an advanced line of defense that would heavily disrupt another direct Russian attack on Selydove.
With the Ukrainian lines largely stabilized and a severe lack of reinforcements making continued assaults impossible, Russians are forced to scale back their attacks and enter a period of reorganization. Russians are moving all available manpower and ammunition in this direction to restart their offensive as soon as possible.
However, the decreased Russian offensive pressure also allowed Ukrainians to do the same: reinforce their units, prepare defensive positions, and set up a stronger defense.
This more static type of warfare also allows the new Ukrainian ‘dragon’ drones to be much more effective, as Russians are sitting in the same trenches and tree lines for a prolonged period of time. As these ‘dragon’ drones have been seen from the southern front up to the north, likely, Ukrainians have effectively created a new, widely adopted weapon designed to target Russians directly in their trenches much more effectively.
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:
- Frontline report: Ukraine reclaims high ground near Kharkiv’s Lyptsi, deploying “flamethrower” drones
