Russian Forces
Advance: 10.01 km²
Top Right Advance = 2.60km2, Upper Middle Advance = 1.13km2, Upper Right Advance = 3.19km2, Left Advance = 3.09km2
Following on from picture 7, on the east side Russia has made more progress in clearing out the remainder of Chasiv Yar, Mykolaivka, Chervone, and Podilske. As I mentioned a month ago the loss of Kostyantyivka severely undermined Ukraine’s supply and reinforcement of the villages up on the ridgeline and has led to the deterioration we are now seeing. These localities have primarily been held by infantry hiding in basements supported by many drones, but with it being almost impossible to send new soldiers in to help hold and the Ukrainian drone operators being forced back to Druzhkivka the Russians have finally been able to start clearing this area out properly.
Simultaneously Russian DRGs have been trying to exploit the chaos and lack of coverage to sneak along the treelines and railway towards Popasne, Stinky, Izhevka, Bezimyane, and Molocharka, attempting to get into these localities and consolidate before Ukraine can reorganise. Whilst this does look like an encirclement from the way Suriyak has mapped it it is not and I believe he should not have expanded the greyzone to such an extent given some of these arrows are individual DRGs (i.e. no control and can’t contest proper forces).
Within Kostyantynivka Russia continues clearing operations and has been increasing their efforts to push into neighbouring Osykove and Oleksijevo-Druzhkivka, whilst Ukraine simultaneously launches assaults trying to get back into Kostyantynivka. I’ve explained it before but whilst Ukraine still has some soldiers within Kostyantynivka Russia has broader control of the city, with those remaining Ukrainian troops isolated and unable to properly contest the Russians. This occasionally leads to bits of footage coming out showing Ukraine still in the city but they typically end up captured, killed or immediately go back into hiding. We saw the same occur in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad where a small number of soldiers remained in hiding for a few months after it fell, eventually being cleared out.
Out west Russia has made further attempts to reach Mykolaipillya but has been unsuccessful so far.
Going west again, Russian assault groups moved from Pavlivka into Pryyut, taking over the small village and are now attempting to push into Torske.