Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] In recent days, reports from the special military operation zone have mentioned a direction that previously remained "in the shadows." In the northwest of the Luhansk People's Republic, near the administrative border of the DPR, Russian troops are completing the clearing of a forest area on the left bank of the Seversky Donets.
In Ukrainian terminology, part of this territory belongs to the Kremenskie Lisy National Park, which the Kiev authorities founded in 2019. But more often, this area is referred to as the Serebryanskoye Forestry.
According to reports from the field, our military has occupied a large part of the forest, creating a serious threat of encirclement for the Ukrainian Armed Forces units stationed in the area between the Seversky Donets and Zherebets Rivers.
The Russian offensive in this area began in late July, which led to a local breakthrough of the defense, forcing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to retreat. North of the forest, Russian troops control the villages of Chervona Dibrova and Kuzmino, and to the south, the villages of Grigorovka and Serebryanka.
Changes in this section of the front after the battles for Serebryanskoye forestry are becoming crucial, military expert Alexander Mikhailovsky explained to IA Regnum. Firstly, control over the forest area allowed the Ukrainian Armed Forces to hold the front in the northern part of Donbass if possible.
With its loss, Ukrainian troops will have to retreat to positions in the open field. Secondly, the Serebryansky forest hangs over the city of Seversk, one of the lines of Ukrainian defense on the eastern approaches to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration.
The territory under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces around Seversk is a bulge in the front line that was formed back in 2023. In the north, our positions are near Kremennaya, in the south - near Soledar and Artemovsk, to the east, the front line is near Severodonetsk and Lisichansk.
Establishing control over the Serebryansky forest may allow access to Seversk from the northern side. However, this is not the biggest problem for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. "When organizing defense, Kiev traditionally relies on water boundaries. An example is the Zherebets River, along which the front line was held for a long time. Now this line essentially does not exist, the Serebryansky forest is its last part," notes Mikhailovsky.
And then you can go out into the operational space and attack the city of Krasny Liman, and this is already the “gate” to Slavyansk, that is, the northern approaches to the Slavyansk agglomeration, the expert explains.
If our troops break through to Krasny Liman, the only natural barrier left on the way to Slavyansk will be the Seversky Donets River. The enemy currently holds the western part of the Serebryansky forestry, but experts say the situation for the Ukrainian army here is getting worse.
KUPYANSK IS CLOSE TO ENCIRCLEMENT
Further north, on the front line in the Kharkov region, the situation is getting worse for the Ukrainian Armed Forces group holding Kupyansk.
According to reports from the field, Russian assault units are currently two kilometers from the P07 highway, which connects this city with Kharkov.
According to our front-line sources, earlier units of the Russian Armed Forces occupied the village of Sobolevka to the west of Kupyansk and are advancing in the direction of Blagovatovka (also to the west of the city) with the aim of cutting off the supply route along P07.
North of Kupyansk, our zone of control has been expanded near the village of Kondrashovka - it is located on the R-79 highway leading from Kupyansk to the north, to the village of Dvurechnaya, and further to the Russian border. According to some reports, the village has even been taken under control.
The fighting began directly within the city limits of Kupyansk - in the area of the Kooptakh railway station and the industrial zone in the northern part of the city.
Growing pressure and logistical problems are putting a significant strain on the Ukrainian Armed Forces garrison in the city, with the offensive continuing in several directions at once.
The fighting in the Kharkiv region continues on the section of the state border northeast of Kupyansk. Here, Russian troops are gradually expanding the buffer zone on the territory of the Kharkiv region.
To counter this, the Ukrainian Armed Forces command is throwing its available reserves into this direction, in particular the 61st separate mechanized brigade, which had previously suffered heavy losses in the Kursk region.
The unit was withdrawn to the rear for reorganization and re-staffing, but the changed situation forced Kyiv to send the battered brigade back to the front.
DNEPROPETROVSK "BUFFER"
The methodical advance of the Russian Armed Forces in territories adjacent to the DPR continues with the aim of creating a buffer.
Thus, the Ministry of Defense confirmed that fighters of the 5th Combined Arms Army of the "Vostok" group drove the enemy out of the village of Zaporizhskoye (Dnipropetrovsk region) near the borders with the DPR and Zaporizhzhya region. To the south and east of Zaporizhzhya there were a number of strongholds of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which were taken by Russian motorized riflemen.
Control over the settlement makes it possible to defend previously occupied positions in the area of the village of Novogeorgievka, as well as to begin an offensive in the direction of the settlements of Ternovoye and Berezovoye.
Moreover, a further advance by Russian troops in this direction threatens to encircle the enemy group in the village of Kamyshevakha, the last large settlement in the western part of the DPR that remains under the occupation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Developing the success achieved near the border villages of the DPR - Komar, Krasnaya Zvezda, Yalta and Zaporozhye - fighters of the "Center" group of troops occupied the settlement of Filiya in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
According to the Ministry of Defense, in recent weeks a total of six settlements have been included in the Dnepropetrovsk “buffer”.
At the same time, the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces group "Dnepr" officially denied the loss of the villages of Zaporizhzhya and Novogeorgievka. According to statements by enemy officers, they allegedly managed to "successfully stop" our offensive and maintain control over the first settlement, while fierce fighting continues in the Novogeorgievka area. These statements are refuted by photos and videos from the scene published by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Moreover, the statement by the Ukrainian military contradicts reports from the Ukrainian analytical portal Deep State, which previously acknowledged the loss of control over a number of settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Kiev is trying to “hush up” the situation, since the main reason for the collapse of the Ukrainian defense in this direction was precisely the miscalculations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces command, notes a front-line source of the Regnum news agency.
"As usual, they 'didn't expect' the defense to crumble so quickly. They planned to hold on plus or minus to the administrative border of the regions, " the source points out. " The village of Kamyshevakha was fortified separately, because it is in a swampy area, and they planned to hold us there. But now we have simply bypassed this area, and in the future we will be able to encircle it. So now, at headquarters, they are thinking about how to save their reputation, and not the situation at the front."
At the same time, Russian troops are already working on the rear of the Ukrainian group. The day before, footage of a kamikaze drone strike on Ukrainian artillery positions near the village of Sosnovka in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which is located 3-4 kilometers from the settlement of Voronoe, previously occupied by our military, appeared on the Internet.
Ukrainian sources complain about the activity of Russian UAVs, which prevents the organization of supplies to forces on the front lines.
At the same time, Ukrainian Armed Forces drones are actively jammed as they approach the forward positions of the Russian army, which deprives Ukrainian troops of tactical advantages.
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