The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian forces, Oleksandr Syrskyj, informed about the bad situation near Huljapole already on Wednesday morning. On Wednesday, the Ukrainian operational command South said that Russian attacks led by various weapons destroyed Ukrainian defensive positions and the Ukrainians had to withdraw from Rivnopilje.
The Russian military channel Dnevnik desantnika reported that six villages were “liberated” in a week. He states that the boarding continues on a wide section of the front and the rapid progress is facilitated by the terrain. According to him, if the fields were not mined, it would be possible to drive the Ukrainians to the Dnieper with drones.
On the contrary, the spokesman of the Ukrainian group South, Vladymir Voloshyn, told the Suspilne station: “Currently, fierce fighting continues and we have stopped the Russian advance. Blocking actions are underway to prevent the Russian army from advancing further.” However, the Russian advance was stopped only after the withdrawal from several villages.
Another Russian military blogger, Rybar, reports that Russian troops have advanced north of Huljapol near Jablukovo and northeast of Huljapol near Rybný, Solodký and Nový.
According to the ISW, units of three Russian all-armies are deployed in the area. The fifth advances towards the city from the east and northeast. The units of the 29th Army, which together with the Fifth, can disrupt the city’s supply from the north and cut them off when they block the T-0401 road leading from Huljapol north to Pokrovský in the Dnepropetrovsk region, or attempt a larger encirclement, are advancing further north. The main operational area of the components of the 29th All-Army Army is Velykomychajlivka in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
South of the city, units of the Russian 35th All-Army Army are stationed, but they have not yet been directly involved in the operation, because the city is better protected from the south. But they threaten the road T-0814 leading from Huljapole to the west.
Instead of a checkerboard line
ISW points out that the Russians use the same tactics as in the spring and summer near Pokrovsk, when they control the airspace above the battlefield for a long time and use drones to block supply routes from the air. The Ukrainians then have a hard time holding their positions because they do not receive supplies and there is no rotation of forces.
The Russians are also attacking the positions of Ukrainian drone operators.
If in this situation the Russians find a weak point in the Ukrainian defense, they will infiltrate through it into the rear. The battlefield is not made up of a long line, where the Russians stand on one side and the Ukrainians on the other, but a chessboard, where each place is controlled by someone else, as was the case at Pokrovsk, before the Russians controlled 45 percent of the city.
At Pokrovsk, the Russians are now trying to conquer neighboring Myrnohradm, which they are bombing from the air.
