Today, the biggest news comes from the Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk Oblast.
Here, as Russian forces struggle to maintain their offensive near Pokrovsk, Ukrainians launched a series of precise counterattacks to push them off balance. What followed in Kotlyne was a tactical display of ambushes, drone strikes, and armor-supported assaults that left Russian units scrambling to hold their ground.
The goal of the Ukrainian forces in this area was to maintain pressure on the Russian troops stationed in the settlement of Kotlyne.
Russian forces here have been depleted by months of constant assaults in their effort to reach the Pokrovsk-Dnipro highway, located five kilometers north of Kotlyne, which is the main supply route of Pokrovsk. To undermine the Russian effort to flank Pokrovsk from the west, Ukrainians are launching counterattacks at Kotlyne, forcing the dwindling Russian forces to protect their positions in the village.
To achieve this, the Ukrainians kept reinforcing their foothold in the southern part of Kotlyne, from which Ukrainians could ambush and engage the Russian forces in close-quarters combat.
The main advantage of the Ukrainian forces in this area is the proximity of Kotlyne to Pokrovsk, where they have stationed large reserves of soldiers and equipment. This logistics hub, combined with an asphalt road between Pokrovsk and Kotlyne, allows Ukrainian forces to quickly deploy their infantry to the settlement using armored vehicles driving at full speed to evade Russian drone strikes.
On top of that, Ukrainians have heavy equipment at their disposal, including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, M-113 armored personnel carriers, and tanks, which provide them with high firepower, mobility, and armored protection.
On the other hand, Russians cannot reinforce their efforts here with armored support, as they have no secure crossing point over the Solona River. This causes Russians to only be able to send forth small groups of infantry to either conduct assault operations or reinforce their efforts in the settlement.
However, Ukrainians are still at a stark disadvantage in terms of available manpower and resources. This forced Ukrainians to exercise caution in their operations, as poorly planned counterattacks could lead to severe losses, meaning that Ukrainians could not afford to over- or wrongly commit their forces.
Unfortunately for Russians, Ukrainians used their armored vehicles to quickly and safely cover the distance between Pokrovsk and Kotlyne, deploying their reinforcements while rotating out tired and wounded soldiers. This allowed them to maintain high morale and fresh soldiers in the village, while also temporarily utilizing the firepower of the armored vehicles during the rotations.
Furthermore, by observing and striking Russian troops moving to Kotlyne across fields to the south, the Ukrainians could anticipate the best moment to conduct the rotations and counter any Russian assaults in time.
Combat footage from the area reveals how a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier deployed reinforcements to Kotlyne after a group of four Russian soldiers was detected moving into the village. The Ukrainian soldiers maintained close contact with reconnaissance drone operators, preparing and initiating an ambush at just the right time, eliminating all four of the Russian soldiers with no friendly casualties.
To further reinforce their efforts and help consolidate control of their positions, Ukrainians deployed additional reinforcements with fire support from tanks to suppress Russian positions and conduct the infill operation safely.
As unarmored Russian infantry reinforcements never made it into Kotlyne, Russians exerted a significant effort in sending two of their remaining armored vehicles to try and undercut Ukrainians from the south. However, both vehicles quickly struck land mines, whereafter the dismounting infantry was eliminated by cluster munitions, FPV drones, and small arms fire coming from the village.
Overall, the Ukrainians launched several well-organized counterattacks, which successfully thwarted the Russian offensive effort on the western flank of Pokrovsk by uppercutting and eliminating the Russian forces at Kotlyne, further consolidating their control in and around the village.
Such a series of successful Ukrainian operations will allow them to gradually expand their zone of control and force Russian forces into a defensive posture due to the growing risk of a collapse of their front lines. As time drags on, Russian forces seem increasingly incapable of continuing their offensive on Pokrovsk, signaling that their efforts are stalling and might be close to culmination.
In our regular 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.
