RU POV: Russian and Ukrainian advances from Day 1089 and 1091 of the War - Suriyakmaps

Starting another update off in Kursk, we’ll begin where we left off on the west side. With Russia now in control of Sverdlikovo, and Ukraine unable to contest the fields north of the border, Russia has begun to gradually clear them of any remaining stragglers or traps left behind. As with the other areas right along the border, once Russia actually gets to the border proper, they’ll replant mines and replace dragons teeth in the gaps created by Ukraine to reestablish a border barrier. Whilst Ukraine can always try to break back over the border again, like we saw further west near Veseloe late last year, the border line, once reestablished, will significantly slow them down if they do make an attempt.

To the southeast, Russian troops are continuing to clear the area taken by Ukraine during their offensive attempt 10 days ago, taking out the remnants of the Ukrainian infantry that had spread out in the forest and recapturing Fanaseevka. There are still clashes going on in and around Cherkasskaya Konopelka, with Ukrainian troops holed up in the basements of many on the buildings on the east side of the village.

On the northern side of the Kupyansk front, over the past 4 days Russia made good progress in multiple different areas, taking over a number of fields and forest areas north of Dvorichna, expanding the buffer on the west side of the town, and securing more treelines southwest of Zapadne. Russia is now in a position to start attacking one or multiple different settlements on this front, however it is difficult to tell which they will go for first as they’ve been expanding in all areas. I’ve still not seen any Russian vehicles in this area, so for now they will continue their attacks on foot, but its only a matter of time until Russia starts to bring in armour for its assaults.

I’ve mentioned this before, but Ukraine isn’t just sitting here letting this happen, however they are having severe issues with manpower and organising a counterattack on this front. Russia has been constantly harassing Ukrainian units with drones and artillery all across this front, so even though Ukraine has been bringing in equipment to try kick off a counterattack, it keeps getting hit before they can use it (video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4, video 5).

On the Chasiv Yar front, Russia continued its push south of the town, recapturing the rest of the forest areas north of the mine, as well as moving into the next forest area and taking over the trenches and dugouts. If you remember my previous post on this area, this is the forest that I mentioned Russia needing to capture to stop the constant Ukrainian attacks on the mine.

This advance also puts Russia close to Stupochky, where Ukraine is currently preparing to defend from the initial Russian assaults. Stupochky falling would compromise Chasiv Yar’s southern flank, so its critical Ukraine hold this area.

Heading to the Kurakhove front, Russian assault groups continue to make progress in Ulakly, moving west from their foothold and capturing the rest of the southern side of the town. Ukrainian positions are rapidly deteriorating here, and most Ukrainian squads/units are trying to retreat west to Kostyantynopil to avoid being encircled.

At the same time as this, Russia also began to clear the remnants of the Kurakhove pocket, which was encircled the day before. Suriyak has marked it mostly in the greyzone as its clear theres no true resistance here, just scattered Ukrainian groups (most around the big trench network under the a). This area will be cleared quite quickly now that Russia can advance on it from all sides.

Moving over the Velyka Novosilka front, northwest of the town itself, Russia continued to move through the fields, crossing one of the small streams as their forces approach the Ukrainian defence line in this area (500m north of this advance). As I mentioned last update, future Russian progress on this area of the frontline will be dictated by whether Russia can get through this defence line quickly, or if they get bogged down.

To the west, a Russian mechanised group (4-5 vehicles) made a dash for the village of Novosilka, managing to reach the village and drop off a number of infantry (20-30), who quickly took over the settlement. Ukrainian sources were quite angry with this advance, as from their reports and some of the video footage released their drones didn’t start attacking this mechanised group until after they had already reached the village, and only started to score hits as they retreated back to Russian lines. Its now a matter of seeing if this Russian group can expand their control in this area and get resupplied.

Following on from Picture 4, Russia completely cleared the remainder of the Kurakhove pocket, bringing an end to it after several months of fighting. Whilst some Ukrainian troops managed to slip out via the area next to the Vovcha River, others were not so lucky and were either captured or killed (most near the one big trench network in the area).

To the west of this, Russia also cleared most of the fields and treelines south of Ulakly, which had been abandoned as Ukrainian forces continue to retreat towards Kostyantynopil. There is still a decently sized Ukrainian garrison within Ulakly which is under attack from Russian assault units.

On the Kupyansk front, Russian troops made a small advance on the eastern edge of the pocket for the first time since October 2024, taking over a few small trenches. For now this looks to be a one-off opportunistic advance, but I’ll keep an eye on this area in case Russia decides to restart offensive operations in full.

On the Toretsk front, Russian assaults groups pushed into Novospaske, taking over the entire southern side of the town, as well as a portion of the centre. Heavy clashes are ongoing in the centre of the town, as Ukraine is quite well dug in in this area. Despite this relatively large advance (40% of the settlement in a day), the battle for Novospaske will likely take some time, as Ukraine has a number of strong units in this area as well as many drone teams.

Following on from picture 5, Russian assault groups northwest of Velyka Novosilka continued their advance north, reaching and taking over 1 section of the defence line here. Whilst this part fell very quickly to the Russian assault, I’d hesitate to say the line is ‘broken’ until they take over more of the adjacent trench networks and secure their positions (which will probably happen within days).

At the same time as this, to the east, a small Russian recon team crossed the Mokri Yaly River north of Velyka Novosilka. Like the previous recon team crossing, they’re likely there to just check the area and clear the treelines next to the River, which will speed up the progress of the main Russian push to follow sometime after.

On the northern side of the Oskil River front, Ukraine made slightly more progress in their counterattack in Zahryzove, capturing another residential street. The back and forth continues in this area, but for now Ukraine are making a bit of headway.

To the southeast, Russian made a minor advance south of Lozova, taking over a few treelines and some defensive positions between the 2 streams in the area.

On the southern side of the same front, Russian assault groups had further success in Yampolivka, taking over the remaining houses on the southern side of the village and confirming full control of the settlement. At the same time a separate Russian group captured a few treelines to the southeast, threatening to encircle the Ukrainian infantry holding the forest areas next to Yampolivka. These soldiers will likely make a break for Torske (next settlement south) over the next day or 2, likely at night so as to provide the best chance of escaping.

In Scherbynivka, Ukraine counterattacking in the centre and eastern sides of the town, retaking the areas that they lost to Russia over the past week. Theres currently fighting ongoing in the central section of the town, as it looks like Ukraine wants to continue pushing south.

On the far eastern side of the Pokrovsk front, Ukrainian troops recaptured the highway interchange east of Malynivka. They’ll run into the same issue that the Russian squad that was here had, in that the interchange doesn’t really have any cover aside from the rubble of the bridge that was destroyed. This does at least push Russia slightly back from Malynivka, buying Ukraine more time to prepare for the defence of the village.

On the west side of the Pokrovsk front, Russia recaptured the rest of Kotlyne, as well as the mine complex, that they lost to a Ukrainian counterattack 4 days prior. Whilst Russia hasn’t quite yet recaptured all the territory they lost to the many Ukrainian counterattacks over the past week (still missing about 2.5km2 of fields), they’ve successfully defeated Ukraine’s attempt to force Russia back and resecure the western flank of Pokrovsk.

Ukraine’s 425th Assault Regiment ‘Skala’ was the unit tasked with all these counterattacks. Looking at the video evidence, reports and how the battles developed, I’d say their main issue is that there was no depth/sustainability to their attacks. Each mechanised assault in the 3 different areas (Kotlyne, Pishchane and Dachenske) made decent progress to begin with, however these assault groups weren’t being reinforced and so quickly lost steam as losses (both equipment and manpower) racked up. Whether they weren’t reinforced because they simply didn’t have the equipment and manpower available, or because Ukraine did not want to commit too hard to these counterattacks, is unclear.

Following on from picture 6, starting in Andriivka, Russian assault groups cleared the last few houses in the town, as well as the trench network on the north side, confirming full control of the settlement. This likely happened 2 days prior (As some Russian sources stated), however Suriyak waited for concrete confirmation as usual. With this, Russia can now look to push west along the Vovcha River and take over the remains of Ukraine’s defence line (As the head for Dnipro Oblast), as well as squeezing Ukrainian troops out of the mostly unprotected fields to the north. Its highly unlikely Russia will try cross the Vovcha River to attack Kostyantynopil from the north, particularly given the progress below.

Moving southeast, Russian assault groups continue to clear Ulakly, where Ukrainian resistance has all but fallen apart. Its now just individual squads and groups desperately trying to retreat towards Kostyantynopil, and being picked off by Russian drones as they run from house to house. Unfortunately they stand little chance of surviving if they do not surrender, and Russian sources have been released an enormous amount of drone footage of them being picked off.

We then move west, where Russian assault groups breached Ukraine’s defences in Kostyantynopil, and have taken over most of the southern side of the town, including the buildings next to only road out of the area on the west side. Ukraine is trying to drive these Russian units out, but heavy Russian drone support has thwarted their attempts so far. Ukraine has also been bringing in a decent amount of equipment as it tries to evacuate all the troops who had been in the Kurakhove pocket, which has naturally led to a spike in losses (video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4). Now, whilst Russia is right next to the only route out of Kostyantynopil, I would not consider this an encirclement just yet as Russia’s positions are quite fragile. They are mostly hiding in the houses and basements, waiting for the chance to start moving out. If Russia can capture the rest of the southern side, as well as reinforce their existing troops, then they will be able to set up ATGM teams overlooking the road and complete the encirclement.

Following on from picture 9, Russian forces that landed in Novosilka have been reinforced and pushed out in the fields to the east, capturing a large area and straightening the frontline. With Ukraine failing to stop Russia from securing Novosilka, they’ll need to begin preparing for the defence of Vilne Pole as that will be Russia’s next target (only 3.2km away).