RU POV: Russian and Ukrainian advances from Day 857 of the War - Suriyakmaps

Russian forces made significant series of advances over the past few days, pushing forward over a 9km wide front, and capturing many Ukrainian positions. This occurred at the same time as Ukraine pushed Russia back from Terny (yesterday's update), and is just to the southwest of this advance. Russian forces will likely continue their advance, aiming to push up to the Zherebets river across a wide front and force Ukraine to retreat to the other side.

As mentioned a few days ago, Russian forces were predicted to clear the remainder of Rozdolivka, which has been confirmed today. From here, Russia will likely continue their advance into the hills to the north, with the goal of taking Pereizne next.

The interesting developments around Toretsk continue. Russian forces have been confirmed to have broken through the Ukrainian defence lines, and pushed into the southern streets of Pivnichne. To be honest, I was quite sceptical of the initial reports of these gains, as it would require Russia to push through some very dense defence lines, which have been there since early in the Ukrainian civil war.

From the information available, Ukrainian forces stationed here allegedly abandoned their positions, forfeiting multiple different trenchlines, bunkers, and dugouts, and are instead trying to defend from the suburbs of the town instead. Whether this was due to a lack of forces, morale, or other factors is unknown, however it does not bode well for Ukraine's defence of this area to give up some of its strongest positions for free.

As I mentioned a few days ago, Ukraine does not look to have a clear/coherent defensive strategy for this area (unlike in other towns such as Chasiv Yar), and is thus struggling to contain and respond to Russian assaults. If Ukrainian reinforcements from other areas do not arrive soon, Russia may be able to take far more of the town cluster than originally predicted.

Russian forces captured the remainder of Sokil, as well as a small section of the neighbouring village of Yevhenivka. To the south, Russian forces captured a tree plantation to the east of Novoselivka Persha, closing in on the town. From here, Russian forces will continue their advance west of Sokil into Yevhenivka, as well as trying to surround Novoselivka Persha from multiple sides.

Russian forces captured a series of trenches and positions on the outskirts of Kostyantynivka in a series of armoured assaults. Whilst Russian forces do not hold any of the town itself, they are only 100m away from the first buildings, so the battle for Kostyantynivka is likely to begin soon.

Heavy clashes have begun between Russia and Ukraine to the northwest of Verbove, as Russia looks to break one of the remaining Ukrainian trenchlines in the salient. Simultaneously, Russian forces pushed out from Robotyne to the northeast, capturing some of their old trenchlines, which they lost during the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive. If Ukraine cannot contain both of these assault groups, it will be forced to retreat from part of the salient, giving up hard-fought positions.

Over the last few days, Ukrainian forces have recaptured a portion of the Serebryansky forest. This particular area is far more dense than where the bulk of the fighting has been occurring, and is filled with small rivers and streams, making advance difficult.