Today, there are a lot of important updates from the Borova direction, Kharkiv Oblast.
Here, the Russians launched a hurried counterattack to try and halt the Third Assault Brigade’s advance. However, the attack failed desasterously, as the elite Ukrainian unit turned the Russian assault into a massacre, shredding nearly half a Russian battalion in one day alone.
The Ukrainian goal is to undermine the upcoming Russian spring offensive towards Borova and Lyman by launching a crushing counterattack to eliminate the Russian bridgehead over the Zherebets river, which the Russians planned to use to launch their offensive. The Russians understood the critical nature of the situation, so they launched a hurried response across the frontline to stop the Ukrainian advance.
Due to the shortage of armored vehicles, Russian forces were forced to rely solely on infantry, saving their limited armored reserve for the final offensive itself.
Additionally, the marshy riverbanks and lack of viable crossing points forced Russians to deploy makeshift pontoon bridges meant to allow large groups of infantry to make it across and overwhelm the Ukrainian defenses.
However, due to the makeshift bridges’ proximity to Ukrainian lines, Ukrainians were able to detect, target, and destroy them almost immediately. This prevented the Russians from moving large numbers of soldiers across the river, leading to insufficient forces for an overwhelming series of assaults.
However, most importantly, due to the sudden appearance of several makeshift infantry pontoon bridges, Ukrainians immediately understood that the Russians were planning a large pure-infantry response, allowing the third assault brigade to get the appropriate defenses ready for battle.
Looking at the battlefield, we can see there are only a few interconnected tree lines connecting Russian lines to the Ukrainian positions. However, the Third Assault Brigade had established strong defenses here, locking down and preventing any Russian infiltration attempt through them, as these defenses proved insurmountable in the previous months of Russian attempts to do so. For this reason, Russian commanders decided to launch their attacks across open fields instead, assuming that the losses, while high, would still be lower than if they tried to take on Ukrainian defenses head-on.
To avoid immediate and complete destruction, Russian soldiers used tactics specifically meant to reduce casualties to drone strikes by keeping a large distance between them and only moving in pairs of two soldiers at a time. This was done to minimize the risk of mass-casualties to a single strike, forcing Ukrainians to use many more drones to eliminate single targets, increasing the chance of Russian soldiers making it across the fields alive.
Unfortunately for Russians, Ukrainians had enough drones in reserve, as they released a 2-and-a-half minute compilation of close to 100 individual FPV drone strikes.
However, as the assault force consisted entirely of infantry, Ukrainians deployed specific 5 to 7-inch large kamikaze drones, which are very fast and agile due to their small size. While their agility was high enough to allow Ukrainians to hit the smaller targets individual Russian soldiers presented, they still carried enough explosive payload to achieve the desired effect.
Ukrainians also deployed reconnaissance drones to observe the effectiveness of the kamikaze strikes, armed with drone-dropped grenades to finish off any misses. These drones could also point out targets for the FPV drone operators, allowing for maximum efficiency during the defense.
During the Russian assault, Russians lost over 229 soldiers, nearly half a Russian battalion in one day. During the whole week of Third Assault Brigade operations, they managed to eliminate a total of 446 Russian soldiers, 16 artillery pieces, dozens of armored vehicles and trucks in the rear, and 10 makeshift bridges Russians deployed to facilitate the crossing.
Overall, the Third Assault Brigade has successfully thwarted the Russian attempt to salvage their bridgehead across the Zherebets river, allowing for a continued push to eliminate and clear the remaining Russians from the area fully. As the destroyed crossing points likely forced Russians to commit soldiers already present in the bridgehead to the suicidal assaults, Russian defenses will be weakened, and Ukrainians might be able to exploit Russian weaknesses to finish their operation before Russians can re-man their positions.
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.
