Ukrainian combined arms counterattacks have defeated a Russian offensive in the strategic Pokrovsk sector, recapturing lost ground and taking prisoners, sources reviewed by Kyiv Post on Tuesday Aug. 26 found.
Infiltrating Russian infantry in early August exploited bad weather and thin Ukrainian lines to open a 4-by-15-kilometer (2.5-by-9-mile) salient in Ukrainian lines near the town of Dobropillya. The Kremlin land grab, if fortified and reinforced, had threatened to break open Ukrainian defenses in the sector and cut supply to Pokrovsk, a major road and logistics hub for Kyiv’s forces.
Ukrainian counterattacks, launched over the past week and intensifying over the weekend, had cut the Russian salient into pieces and retaken about one-third of the lost ground, recent battle reports showed.
Most reports said defending Russian forces numbered between 1,000-2,000 men and were outnumbered by Ukrainian troops concentrated against them. By Tuesday, images and reports showed reliable evidence that Ukrainian forces had captured between ten and twenty Russian prisoners of war.
Russian aircraft were carrying out repeated air strikes in the area, but Ukrainian forces had gained the initiative around the Dobropillya salient, and assaults were eliminating pockets of Russian troops still holding out, reports mostly agreed.
Ukrainian troops, by Sunday, per unit announcements and geo-located drone video, had re-captured the villages of Mykolaivka, Hrekivka and Volodymyrivka – all localities firmly under Russian control earlier in the week.
Ukraine’s commander Oleksandr Syrsky, on Monday in an official statement, confirmed that Volodymyrivka was under Ukrainian control, and praised attacking troops for executing “a well-planned…(and) successful operation.”
A Sunday battle report from Ukraine’s 425th Assault Regiment “Skala” said its attacks had carried Mykolaivka, defeating and putting to flight infantry from Russia’s 5th Motor Rifle Regiment.
A Monday situation update published by the Washington DC-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) corroborated the Ukrainian field reports of Russian forces’ loss of initiative and having been forced to hunker down in the face of combined drone, armor, artillery, and assault infantry attacks by Kyiv troops.
“The Russian military command has reportedly given up efforts to exploit the penetration toward Dobropillya, after Russia’s infiltration tactics appear to have been unsuccessful in establishing enduring positions within this penetration,” the ISW situation estimate said in part.
The independent geo-location research group DeepState, on Tuesday, showed practically all ground captured by Russian forces during the Dobropillya attack operation in early- and mid-August, as no-man’s-land in neither Ukrainian nor Russian hands. Territory under firm Russian control had receded by Tuesday by nearly 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from its greatest penetration into Ukrainian lines two weeks ago, the DeepState Tuesday situation map showed.
Official Ukrainian sources said combat was continuing in the “gray zone” to the south and east of Dobropillya and that small Russian units still were at large.
Although the general trend of combat along the front over the weekend was dominated by dozens of Russian assaults in multiple sectors, scoring incremental ground gains, two more local Ukrainian counterattacks were claimed by Kyiv to have succeeded, accompanied by video and battle report evidence generally confirming the Ukrainian claims.
Ukraine’s 214th Assault Regiment, in reports describing fighting some 50 kilometers (31 miles) south-west of the Dobropillya salient and the Pokrovsk sector, claimed its assault teams, backed by artillery and drones, had launched attacks capturing the town of Zeleny Hai, which had been under Russian control since early August.
On Sunday, the 214th, an outfit specializing in close-in assaults and urban fighting, published video showing its drones attacking Russian troops and vehicles in Zeleny Hai, and claimed attack operations were proceeding well. Other sources said Ukrainian forces attacking in parallel with the 214th had captured the adjacent village of Tolstoi in fighting on Thursday and Friday.
Ukrainian military news reporter Vasyl Pekhno, in a Monday report, said the 214th was in full control of Zeleny Hai following powerful assaults by that unit and the 37th Marine Brigade, along with elements of the 5th Mechanized Brigade, 67th Mechanized Brigade, and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a unit of Russian citizens fighting on Ukraine’s side. The 37th Brigade on Friday published video of marine infantrymen holding a brigade and a Ukrainian national flag for a drone to video record, from the center of Zeleny Hai.
All those formations are high-performing fighting outfits with strong combat records. Multi-brigade attacks by the ZSU are rare.
In a northern section of the eastern front, in the Lyman sector, some 130 kilometers (81 miles) north-east of Pokrovsk, another successful Ukrainian attack hit and captured the village of Novomyhailivka. According to statements and video footage published by one of the attacking units, the elite 3rd Assault Brigade, combined arms attacks by the 3rd, along with special operations infantry unit from the Ukrainian army military intelligence agency (HUR), took the village with few friendly losses.
According to an unconfirmed 3rd Assault report citing alleged intercepts of Russian military radio traffic, the operation led by the brigade’s second battalion “caught the occupiers by surprise. The enemy lost about a company…Thanks to the coordinated work of intelligence, attack aircraft, heavy equipment, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Ukrainian units improved their tactical position and strengthened the defense of the strip in the direction.”
Video geo-located to the Novomyhailivka battle area and reaching open access on Monday showed Ukrainian first-person-view (FPV) drones hunting down and detonating after striking individual Russian soldiers. Third brigade infantry squads were shown to be clearing buildings using automatic fire and grenades and capturing Russian prisoners. Ukrainian forces lost control of the village in June. The Ukrainian assaults were continuing, an army statement said.