RU POV: Russian and Ukrainian advances from Day 1339 and 1340 of the War - Suriyakmaps

Russian Forces Advance: 1.81 km²

Advance = 1.81km2

Starting out on the Sumy front, in a surprising turn of events the Russians were able to counterattack and recapture Oleksiivka. Two weeks ago the village looked to be falling to the Ukrainians, who had moved infantry groups in from the south and west, but due to constant shelling and droning these units ran out of steam and were driven out. The settlement is still in a precarious position, but the Russians will hold it for now.

Russian Forces Advance: 12.24 km²

Advance = 12.24km2

Onto the Kharkiv border area, where the Russians have continued to expand their control and quickly captured the village of Bolohivka (poorly defended), as well as the surrounding fields and treelines. They have already moved south towards Dvorichanske, where clashes are taking place on the outskirts on the village.

Ukrainian Forces Advance: 2.75 km²

Advance = 2.75km2

Onto the Kupyansk front, Ukraine has continued its counterattacks on the northwest side for another week, managing to recapture a chunk of the railway and some of the treelines outside the town.

In a somewhat bizarre event, there was also an extremely aggressive Ukrainian attack with 2x M113s deep into Russian lines (dotted blue line), which ended badly (video 1, video 2, video 3). It’s not entirely clear whether they got lost or really were trying to push that far past the frontline, but either way the attack was never going to end well. The Russian supply lines into Kupyansk are quite shaky, but not so vulnerable that Ukraine can just rush to cut them off in one go.

Russian Forces Advance: 8.33 km²

Advance = 8.33km2

Down to the Oskil River front, Russian forces resecured the trench networks east of Zahryzove, restoring the frontline to how it originally was earlier this year. In my opinion the Russians almost certainly captured this area months back, Suriyak is just incredibly late with reporting it due to how quiet this particular area is.

If you don’t remember, back in June this year (Day 1204) the Russians filmed themselves bombing the trench networks here as Ukraine had reportedly moved some infantry in to try flank Zahryzove. No movement has been filmed here since then (that I’m aware of), so the attempt clearly failed and the Russians would have resecured the trench networks sometime after that, but went no further.

Russian Forces Advance: 15.36 km²

Top Left Advance = 4.14km2, Middle Advance = 11.22km2

Moving onto the Lyman front, Russian assaults groups improved their positions in the forest and have reached the first buildings of the town, marking the start of the third battle for this settlement in the war. At the moment there are only forward Russian troops present, but they are already working on establishing a proper foothold and bringing in assault groups.

To the southeast on both the Lyman and Siversk fronts, over the past week Russian troops on both sides of the Siverskyi Donets River have been pressuring Dronivka, with the ones north of the river heading down the railway and taking positions in the forest right opposite the village, whilst the troops south of the river secured the forest area north of the Bakhmutovka River (next to the old quarry), before crossing it in several places and assaulting Dronivka. At this point half of the village is under Russian control as the Ukrainian positions were untenable (surrounded on 3 sides, supply routes under drone attack), with the remainder being assaulted now. If Russia secures Dronivka they will be able to push southwest and begin to close in on the supply routes for Siversk.

Russian Forces Advance: 2.53 km²

Advance = 2.53km2

On the other side of the Siversk front, Russian forces have continued working on the fields east of Zvanivka, capturing some more treelines and fortifications.

Russian Forces

No Advance

Heading over to the Kostyantynivka front, Russian DRGs continue to break into the city itself, working on clearing out some areas so they can secure a foothold for proper Russian assault groups to move in. Ukraine is engaging these groups but has been unable to drive them out so far.

Russian Forces Advance: 4.64 km²

: Top Advance = 1.90km2, Upper Right Advance = 2.15km2, Middle Right Advance = 0.59km2

Onto the Pokrovsk front, on the north side Russian assault groups cleared out the last apartment buildings in Rodynske and captured the town. They are trying to quickly consolidate their positions so they can push out into the surrounding fields and treelines to further tighten the noose around the Pokrovsk pocket.

To the southeast, Russian forces made further advances in 2 parts of Myrnohrad, capturing the ventilation shafts of Kapitalna mine and entering the northwestern suburbs, as well as capturing most of the complex of mine 5/6. Ukraine has been launching smaller counterattacks but the Russians are now firmly entrenched in Myrnohrad and are spreading out further each day.

Ukrainian Forces Advance: 0.73 km²

Advance = 0.73km2

Heading out west to the Zaporizhia front, over the past few weeks positional battles in Stepnohirsk have been ongoing, with the Ukrainians retaking some of the southern streets whilst Russia has moved into the Prymorske dachas adjacent to this. Lot of back and forth in this area and a mess of control, with little infantry groups all over the place.

Ukrainian Forces Advance: 8.14 km²

Advance = 8.14km2

Over on the Pokrovske front, throughout October Ukraine has been attacking back into Oleksandrohrad from across the Vovcha River, gradually consolidating their positions in the nearby treelines before moving into the village and capturing it. Their control is still quite unstable in this area, hence why it took so long, but they are working on expanding their control and bringing new forces in.

Russian Forces Advance: 7.63 km²

Middle Left Advance = 0.28km2, Lower Left Advance = 7.35km2

Moving to the Pokrovske front, Russian assault groups on the other side of the Yanchur River captured the village of Zlahoda, whilst others further east closed in on Krasnohirske, taking a large area of fields.

Slightly north of that, one other Russian group managed to sneak into Yehorivka (red dot bottom left of @), taking up positions in the first few houses. The loss of this village would cripple any defence of Vyshneve, as all its supplies and reinforcements travel through there.

Russian Forces Advance: 2.01 km²

Middle Right Advance = 0.18km2, Lower Left Advance = 1.83km2

Swinging all the way back up to the northern front, over the span of 2 days Russian assault groups in the forest west of Vovchansk have continued quickly expanding their control, flanking the village of Synelnykove (orange dot), which will almost certainly fall if they try to push in (Ukrainian defence there is a mess).

Northeast of this, the other Russian forces have continued working in Vovchansk itself, securing the asphalt plant next to the railway and pressuring the remainder of the industrial zone.

Russian Forces Advance: 5.16 km²

Lower Middle Advance = 2.98km2, Lower Right Advance = 2.18km2

Following on from picture 2, Russian troops in the border area captured more of the treelines west and east of Bolohivka, closing in on Dvorichanske.

Context

No Advance

Over on the Kupyansk front, in a confusing turn of events Russian troops were spotted in eastern Kurylivka, about 6km further west than their previously reported positions and in a settlement they supposedly hadn’t even assaulted yet. Even more confusing is the fact that to reach Kurylivka the Russians would have to go through Pishchane, which Suriyak claimed Ukraine recaptured in a counterattack last week. Clearly the Ukrainians don’t have a solid grip on either Pishchane or Kurylivka, leading to gaps the Russians can exploit (so greyzone expanded).

Russian Forces Advance: 14.30 km²

Very Top Left Advance = 3.73km2, Top Left Advance = 1.97km2, Middle Advance = 7.22km2, Lower Middle Advance = 1.38km2

Following on from picture 5, on the northeast side Russian assault groups have secured the remainder of the national park and have ben to move west and southwest into the large forest, including capturing a water treatment plant. Gaining access to the forest would provide Russia a significant amount of cover and room to move in, which they can use to attack Oleksandrivka (top left blue dot), or Yarova (above the @). Suriyak also claims the Ukrainians are retreating from the last section of Novoselivka at this point, but I’ll note other sources claim the Russians captured it last week. Either way, not a good development for the northern side of the Lyman front for Ukraine.

To the southeast, Russian forces from Zarichne have been working on expanding the buffer around the town, capturing large parts of the forest area next to the settlement and some fortifications.

Russian Forces Advance: 3.19 km²

Advance = 3.19km2

Following on from picture 6, Russian assault groups have further expanded control over the treelines and dugouts south of Siversk, getting within 1.3km of the first buildings of the town. However it is still far too early to talk about an assault as Russia will need to secure much more of the surrounding area and also Zvanivka (above the S) if they want to be able to supply any assault and bring in more troops.

Ukrainian Forces Advance: 32.99 km²

Top Left Advance = 19.15km2, Upper Left Advance = 0.31km2, Bottom Left Advance = 13.53km2

On the Northeast side of the Pokrovsk front Ukrainian forces launched a series of massive attacks over the past week from multiple sides, finally crushing the salient. With even more forces arriving in the form of special forces and intelligence units, the Ukrainians managed to crack the Russian defenders who were vastly outnumbered in the salient, recapturing the villages of Nove Shakhove, and Chernyavskiy (both again), as well as a large area of fields and treelines. Russian positions in what remains of the salient will likely be overwhelmed in the coming days due to sheer numbers and the frontline will return to a similar position as it was in early August.

South of this, a separate set of attacks has been taking place over the past week, with Ukraine sending many infantry groups into Sukhetske and Zatyshok which captured the villages. Unlike the above their control is quite fragile here and the Russians have been heavily bombarding their positions with drones and artillery.

To the northeast the Russian assault groups in Shakhove made a small advance, now in control of the western portion of the town.

Russian Forces Advance: 4.35 km²

Upper Middle Advance = 1.12km2, Middle Left Advance = 0.11km2, Lower Left Advance = 3.12km2

On the opposite side of the Pokrovske front, Russian forces once again pushed back into the coking coal mine north of Udachne, this time taking over the buildings on the southwestern side. They have been heavily bombarding the mine for weeks now and have destroyed many positions, so they may be more successful on this attempt.

Southwest, Russian troops from Molodetske made a minor advance west along the railway, probing Ukrainian positions near Novopidhorodne.

South of that, Russian troops restarted operations west of Novoserhiivka, recapturing several fields and treelines and beginning to move into Dnipro Oblast. This puts the Ukrainian troops in Novomykolaivka (bottom blue dot) in an awkward position as their recent recapture of the settlement and subsequent supply comes from the north side of the Solona River, which will be cut off if the Russian push further west here.

Russian Forces Advance: 4.76 km²

Upper Left Advance = 0.42km2, Upper Middle Advance = 4.34km2

Following on from picture 10, Russian forces in Novoselivka recaptured the last couple of houses in the village, resecuring it. The threat of a Ukrainian counterattack remains until the Russians are able to cross the Vovcha River and take over the forest.

Adjacent to this, after another week of fighting the second Ukrainian counterattack into Sichneve was defeated, with the Russians recapturing the village. Same as above, Ukraine has been quite aggressive with counterattacks in this area and may try again.