RU POV: Russian and Ukrainian advances from Day 1006 to 1008 of the War - Suriyakmaps

Kicking this post off in the Kursk region, where Russia has mostly secured the area it captured during the second phase of its counteroffensive. As I’ve mentioned previously, the large scale attacks and counterattacks that peaked a few weeks ago have now died down, with the front now transitioning back to mostly positional fighting. A small group of Russian troops (2x IFVs) have pushed south from Zelenyi Shlyakh and Novoivanovka, dropping infantry off who secured part of the field and the next treeline south of those settlements.

In Kupiansk, after 10 days of no news of the sudden Russian push into the town (due to both Russia and Ukraine withholding footage for OPSEC), we finally have another update. According to Suriyak (and his sources), Ukraine has forced Russia to retreat from its small foothold in Kupiansk after the arrival of reinforcements (pulled from other areas of the Kupiansk front). Russia still controls the northern forest and field area, but could not get enough reinforcements into the town to hold their positions.

There is still a complete lack of footage from this area, so its not certain this occurred, but I have read reports that the fighting in Kupiansk has mostly died down, which would not happen if Russia still held part of the town. This does not rule out that Russia may launch another attempt to get into Kupiansk, once they can gather more forces and prepare more thoroughly.

On the Kurakhove front, Russia continued to gradually clear the fields between Beretsky and Novoselydivka, which became impossible for Ukraine to contest due to Russian control of those settlements.

A little south of the previous picture, in Kurakhove itself Russian assault groups have continued making good progress within the town, capturing another chunk of the central suburbs and industrial area, reaching the first of the highrise buildings in the centre of the town (which also confirms the reports I mentioned here). They’ve also cleared the warehouses and fields on the southeastern side of Kurakhove, providing Russia firm control over the eastern side and allowing for much easier reinforcement and supply of their troops.

I mentioned early this week that it was still too early to say Ukraine would lose the town, however we are now quickly reaching that point. Ukraine has lost control over half of Kurakhove, and clearly does not have the ability to dislodge or even push Russia back, with Ukrainian sources reporting shortages of practically everything. Ukraine is mostly operating out of the power plant on the western side of Kurakhove, in the basements and nearby industrial buildings, but this area is simply not suitable to try hold due to how exposed/vulnerable the supply line is. Once Russia takes the central town area, Ukraine will have little choice but to try evacuate via the single remaining road west, if they have not already left it too late.

Russia also crossed the main road to the south, and has begun moving through the fields west of Dalnje.

On the Velyka Novosilka front, Russian assault groups made progress in Rozdolne, capturing the eastern half of the town. The remainder will almost certainly fall to Russia in the coming days as the few Ukrainian squads operating there are either picked off or forced to retreat.

To the south, Russia captured the trench network on the eastern side of Velyka Novosilka, as I mentioned In the last post, giving them a position to set their troops up in for assaults on the town. At the same time as this, the first Russian assault troops entered Velyka Novosilka from the southeast side, dislodging Ukraine from the trenches and warehouses there and establishing a foothold in the first streets. Thus the battle for Velyka Novosilka has now started.

On the Orikhiv front, Russian forces made a small advance from Luhivske to the outskirts of Bilohirya, as they look to begin assaults on the village. Like the other battles on this front, this one involved very few troops and was mostly just a slow push using heavy drone support, with a couple of infantry clearing Ukrainian positions. The fighting over Bilohirya will be slow as well, due to how heavily destroyed the settlement is (i.e. lack of cover).

On the Oskil River front, Russian forces captured the last section of Kopanky (above the u), confirming full control of the settlement. At the same time, a Russian assault group made a sudden advance west of Vyshneve, closing in on the village of Zelenyi Hai.

Further south on the same front, Ukrainian forces launched a counterattack with mechanised troops, recapturing the fields east of Torske, which undoes the Russian progress made here since the beginning of November. They did try to push back even further, although a few losses and Russian resistance meant they had to pull back. Russia will almost certainly try for Torske again in the future, however for now Ukraine has once again successfully defended the village.

On the Selydove front, Russian troops made several advances on the west side, capturing several fields near Pushkine as they prepare for an assault on the village, as well as securing the last houses of Zorya (now fully controlled), and the adjacent fields.

With Russia making good progress in the fields heading west, they have been able to start building Selydove up as a new logistics hub for this front, with a direct route (highway E50) to the major hub of Donetsk City. This will aid Russia in maintaining their offensive ability (for the attacks to the west), as well as making it easier for them to push towards Pokrovsk (via the fields to the northwest of Selydove).

On the Kurakhove front once again, this time the southern side. In the pocket to the east, Russia has continued launching small mechanised assaults to clear the area, capturing another large chunk of the fields north of the Sukhi Yaly River, as well as the entirety of Yelyzavetivka.

To reiterate what I’ve said before, whilst Ukraine was already pulling out of the pocket, there are a decent number of troops who did not/have not made it out, either because their evacuation never came (e.g. MRAP was destroyed by Russian drones), or it was simply too late and they were forced to dig in where they were. This obviously led to a number of casualties, particularly in the tree plantation next to Yelyzavetivka (video 1, video 2), that could have been avoided if Ukraine had retreated earlier.

To the west, Russia also made a small advance through the fields north of Yasna Polyana, heading for the cluster of settlements along the Vovcha River (off map north).

Following on from picture 5, Russia made further progress in and around Rozdolne, capturing most of the southern side of the small town, as well as the fields to the northeast. As mentioned in picture 5, the few Ukrainian squads in the town will not be able to hold the last few houses on the northwest side for long, and will have to retreat west across the main road to Velyka Novosilka.

On the southwest side, a Russian assault group made a small advance in the fields west of the Mokri Yaly River, capturing a couple of small trenches and some treelines. There is still no large mechanised attacks on this west side like the ones we saw last week on the east side of this front.

Following on from picture 1, Russia made another small mechanised attack to the south of the previous one, dropping troops off and securing the next treelines to the south. This slow leapfrogging of a few infantry from one position to another one continue until Russian command determines it is close enough to Sverdlikovo (under the u), to launch a larger attack on the village.

In Toretsk, Russian troops recaptured the small hospital in the forest area on the south side. This likely occurred very shortly after Ukraine took it on Day 996 (due to it being quite isolated and thus difficult to hold), but this was not confirmed until now.

Following on from picture 9, Russia began to advance along the railway north of the Solona river, heading northwest. At the same time, clashes are occurring on the outskirts of Zhovte, as Russia begins the first assault on the village.

Following on from picture 3, Russian troops crossed the stream and captured the last section of Beretsky, as well as some fields and a trench network to the north. With this advance the way is now open for Russia to push to Stari Terny so that they can gain fire control over the supply road into Kurakhove. With Sontsivka (left of @) also mostly under Russian control, the fields between the 2 settlements will gradually fall under Russian control over the next few days/1 week as Ukraine retreats west.

Following on from picture 4, Russia launched another mechanised attack around Kurakhove, this time heading north from Dalnje towards the town, capturing several Ukrainian trenchlines and bunkers. The fighting within Kurakhove mean Ukrainian forces are too preoccupied to properly hold the southern defences, and so they are easily falling to the first Russia attack launched. If Russia starts heading west using Ukraine’s own trenches, they will skirt around the town and could cut Kurakhove off.