RU POV: Russian and Ukrainian advances from Day 1087 and 1088 of the War - Suriyakmaps

Starting off in Kursk, in Sverdlikovo, Russian assault groups continue to push Ukraine out of the village, capturing most of the west side of the settlement, as well as crossing the Loknya River and taking over the central street. At this point Ukraine only maintains a small foothold on the eastern side and in one of the farms to the south, but is quickly losing control of the situation. Russia also took this opportunity to clear a large chunk of the fields west of Sverdlikovo, now that Ukraine has been driven back and can’t properly contest the area.

The biggest issue for Ukraine here is that Sverdlikovo and Lebedevka are both quite isolated, with many km of open fields on 3 sides of the villages. Whilst this greatly aided them when Russia was trying to attack from Darino and Nizhnii Klin, its now hurting Ukraine as its significantly more difficult to get supplies and reinforcements into the settlement compared to other villages as they are constantly harassed by drones. The only viable option is to send them up from Basivka (over the border in Sumy), however Russia has been putting a lot of pressure of these reinforcements and supplies via constant drone strikes (video 1, video 2, video 3), which are destroying or knocking out equipment and troops before they can be used to defend Sverdlikovo. At this stage its highly unlikely Ukraine will be able to hold Sverdlikovo, and will be forced to retreat back to Lebedevka and over the border into Sumy.

At the same time as all this, on the northern side of the Kursk front Ukraine launched counterattacks in Kositsa over the past week, retaking the northern half of the village as well as the forest area on the west side. They are not out of the danger zone yet, as Russia still has a decently sized force in Russkoe Porechnoe which will certainly try to attack Kositsa again.

On the Oskil River front, continuing on from their small advance last update, the same Russian group operating around Makiivka made another minor advance south of the settlement, securing some treelines that were in the greyzone.

Further south on the same front, Russian assault groups in Yampolivka continued to clear the village, taking over the remainder of the central area, and several buildings on the south side. There are now only a few houses near the river in the greyzone, and a warehouse on the east side, before Yampolivka is completely under Russian control.

At the same time, a different Russian group has been slowly clearing the forest areas east of Yampolivka, taking over another small portion. This is where most of the Ukrainian troops in this area are based, hiding in dugouts and trenches amongst the trees.

On the far eastern side of the Pokrovsk front, following on from the previous day, Russia continued to press the attack, moving from Vodyane Druhe (below Berezivka) through the mini-forest as they head for Berezivka. The village, like Vodyane Druhe, is very small, and won’t last long once assaulted. Southeast of this, Russia also continued to clear the fields on the west and east side of the Bychok River, advancing into and capturing the village of Zelene Pole (red dot above a). With this advance, Russia is now set up to assault Tarasivka (very top of map) on both the east and west side.

To the west, Russia advanced out from its positions in the livestock farms near the road, capturing several fields and treelines around Yelyzavetivka (blue dot). The situation in the village is unknown, as neither side has released any footage from there, and there hasn’t been any assault attempts since the first one almost a month ago. If Ukraine does still control the village, they’ll need to evacuate soon or be cut off by the Russian push to the north.

On the Pokrovsk front, Ukraine continued its counterattacks in multiple areas, whilst Russia also continued their activities. Starting with the northwestern side, Russian assault groups made a little bit of progress in Udachne, retaking some of the houses on the southern side that they lost a few weeks ago. There is still a lot of back and forth here, with neither side able to properly secure the town.

To the east, Ukraine’s continued attacks towards Kotlyne have paid off, with Russia forced to retreat from the mine complex, farm and fields around the village. Ukraine was also able to take over part of the southern street of Kotlyne after a mechanised assault. Currently there are intense clashes along the railway and in central Kotlyne, as Russia tries to hold its ground against the Ukrainian counterattacks.

Moving to the southeast, Ukraine made a bit more progress in Pishchane, with their assault groups reportedly expanding control in the mine area and on the west side. Pishchane is quite odd in terms of reports, as both Russia and Ukraine have made claims about controlling the settlement, and have videos to show it. From what I can gather there is some truth to both sides of the reporting. The Ukrainian 425th Assault Regiment ‘Skala’ did reach Pishchane and has troops there, but its also true that Russia’s garrison is still present, and Russian drone operators have been hammering the attacking forces (which I’ve linked before). Which side comes out on top is going to depend on whether Ukraine can maintain their pace, or if they drone pressure gets to be too much and they are forced to retreat to Pokrovsk.

Further southeast, Russia retook most of the positions they lost to Ukraine last week in Dachenske, driving the Ukrainian assault group away. They still need to retake the houses up to the Solonyi River to fully reverse the Ukrainian gains, but for the most part this Ukrainian counterattack looks to have petered out.

On the Kurakhove front, Russia continues to close in on Ulakly, capturing multiple fields and treelines on the south and east side of the pocket. Ukraine already began to evacuate the pocket a little while ago, but there are still a decent amount of troops in the area who haven’t left yet, as well as their equipment. From what I can gather from reports, it looks like they will be retreating back to positions around Rozlyv and Bahatyr.

On the Velyka Novosilka front, Russia continues to make gradual advances west of the town, taking control of more fields adjacent to the ones they captured over the past few days. There was also a video of some of the Russian clearing operations in this area (not necessarily these fields, but west of Velyka Novosilka).

Further northeast, Russia has also begun pushing towards Odradne (off map north), taking over a treeline near Novyi Put. For now these advances have been small, but as you can tell from the last 2 updates Russia is gradually gearing up to resume offensive operations on this front. They’ve already started to target equipment and logistics in and around Odradne, as they prepare for an eventual assault (still a while away though).

Following on from picture 1, Russian forces captured the remaining buildings in Sverdlikovo, confirming full control of the village. It was always going to be difficult for Ukraine to reinforce and drive Russia out once they had a foothold, but it did occur a bit faster than I expected. Russia now needs to consolidate its positions, and will be looking to hit Lebedevka (blue dot below a) next. Whilst there is a direct route from Sverdlikovo to Sudzha, it would be suicidal to try assault the town now, as there is simply too much open ground to cover, and too many angles they could be attacked from (expanded on in comments below).

On the northern side of Kursk, Suriyak made a correction to the frontline, as Ukraine was shown to control more of the railway line and Pogrebki than previously reported. Its unclear when this occurred, as Ukraine could have snuck troops up the railway line at any point in the past month, as this area was mostly in the greyzone. As for Pogrebki, Ukraine reinforced their garrison and at some point recaptured the houses on the southern side. Clashes continue in this area as they have for the past month and a half, but neither side has been able to come out on top or clear all the buildings of their opponent yet.

On the Toretsk front, Russia made a slight advance in Scherbynivka, taking over the houses on the northeastern side of the town. Progress here remains slow due to the density of drones in this area.

Following on from picture 4, Russian troops pushed into Berezivka from Vodyane Druhe, capturing the small village in the first assault. They’ll likely expand the buffer around the village a bit (by taking the fields to the north), before joining up with the other Russian forces moving towards Tarasivka (off map above Baranivka).

Following on from picture 5, there were a number of advances in different areas. Starting the northwestern side again, Russia made a bit of progress in Udachne, retaking part of the eastern houses north of the railway. Back and forth continues as mentioned earlier.

To the southeast, in a seemingly quick reversal, Russia forces drove the Ukrainian assault groups out of Pishchane, securing the village once again. Whilst these groups had already been under intensive attack, this was quite fast to go from one side in control to the other controlling it. This probably isn’t a mistake on Suriyak’s part, as there is plenty of video evidence from the Russians showing Ukraine had reached and taken most of the settlement. What I think has happened is that the Russian garrison were never properly cleared out, and the Ukrainian assault group wasn’t reinforced after the first 2 days, so they were picked off over time and eventually had to bail as they couldn’t properly clear Pishchane. This is just speculation on my part, as the claims by both sides are still all over the place.

To the southwest, Russian forces made slightly more progress in Zaporizhzhya, taking over more of the centre of the village. Only the northern farm and western houses remain, which are being fought over now. There was also a small advance to the north along the tree plantation, with a Russian assault group moving west as they head towards Preobrazhenka. There are some Russian sources that claim they already entered that village (by continuing south of this advance along that treeline), but this can’t be confirmed yet.

Following on from picture 6, a large Russian mechanised column pushed north from Zelenivka, breaking through Ukrainian positions and dropping off several assault groups in Ulakly, who quickly took over the eastern side of the town. This puts Ukraine in an incredibly bad position, as they hadn’t completed their withdrawal from the pocket yet and some of their soldiers are now encircled in the fields (and a large trench network) to the east. Russia made such significant progress in a day as Ukraine was likely in the process of evacuating troops from Ulakly, and in the confusion the outskirts of the town likely weren’t defended properly.

At this stage, the Russian assault groups are quickly pressing into the town, trying to take it over before Ukraine can recover and try stabilise/stall. Ukrainian troops to the east, now encircled, stand little change of breaking out without a large Ukrainian counterattack. Theres incredibly little information on just how many soldiers are still in the pocket, so I can’t comment on numbers.

At the same time as this, Russia has also been exerted pressure on Kostyantynopil, stepping up their attacks (video 1, video 2, video 3), and also reportedly trying to push into the town now. Currently theres no information on whether Russia has been able to enter the town like they did Ulakly, but clashes are ongoing in the vicinity.

Following on from picture 7, a small number of Russian infantry crossed the Mokri Yaly River, entering Novoocheretuvate. For now this looked to be a reconnaissance group, but the risk for Ukraine is that if the village falls, Russia will be behind one of their defence lines in this area, and can flank their forces (expanded on in comments below).