Ukrainian 1st Tank Brigade has returned to the fight. Badly damaged in the winning fight northeast of Kyiv (Chernihiv) it took them a while to rebuild. It's 1st Battalion has gone into action on the Donbas (eastern) Front, the rest of the brigade has appeared in the center of the southern front.
Ukr 72nd Mech Brigade, damaged in the fighting northwest of Kyiv, has also returned to the fighting with one battalion on the Donbas Front and the rest of the brigade around Kharkiv.
Both of Ukraine's Mountain Assault brigades (10th and 128th) have returned to the front as well.
All four of these are elite regular army units on par with Ukraine's 92nd and 93rd Mech Brigades.
Wherever these brigades appear in the line the Russians suffer.
Meanwhile Russia is practicing defending the Crimea bridge...
With smoke.
(sound off)
Ukraine has completely evacuated Severodonetsk and is slowly evacuating Lysychansk behind it. Russians have cut both east-west supply roads into the cities. Don't know how many, if any, Ukrainian troops are still in Lysychansk, but it cannot be many.
Ukraine stopped adding reinforcements to the Severodonetsk pocket after the Volunteer Foreign Legion counter attack 2 weeks ago. Reinforcements coming into the rear of that pocket are instead manning the next (and much shorter) line of defense...
The Southern Front remains an artillery duel (which the Ukr is now winning) with small patrol and probing actions all along the line and a lot of anti-Russian partisan activity behind the Russian lines.
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Russian held Kherson bridgehead continues to shrink, Ukrainians outnumber Russians by about 3 to 1 on this front. Both sides of both Kherson bridges are now within Ukr artillery range...and being pummeled.
...
Snake Island.
The island is a rock sticking out of the water with a little bit of grass on top of it. There is no way to "dig in" or otherwise fortify it.
Ukrainian 155mm artillery began shelling the island and with no way to respond or defend against it, the Russians evacuated the island. They used helicopters at night and abandoned all of the expensive SAM systems that they'd so painfully placed there.
Then the Russians wasted missiles destroying the equipment that they'd abandoned.
Thus concludes this evenings surprise update.
Questions?
so so many.....I have been pre occupied with work and haven't been paying attention other than your post....does Ukr stand a chance overall without serious intervention by allies?
@killagator Yes. Despite some appearances Ukraine retains many advantages and damage to the Russian military has been catastrophic.
@Render @killagator
But, now with a smaller front, can the tactical effect of Ukr forces be amplified?
And, are they depending too heavily upon the Russian supplies drying up vs hitting them? I'm not seeing any progress on supply chains to Izyum for weeks.
Pt 2:
Iziyum and the area around it is being pounded on an almost daily basis by Ukr artillery and Rus units dependent on that supply line are struggling both to move forward in some areas and to hold ground in other areas.
This is where Ukr 1st Tank Brigade 1st Tank Battalion was committed and where most of Ukr's Air Assault Brigades are holding the line. Ukr 3rd, 4th, and 17th tank brigades are also all in this area.
@Render @killagator
That's interesting. Yet, no ground is being made along the front to the east of Kharkiv. I was hoping that we'd soon see a route, from the north, of all R forces pushing south of Izium.
@jurban The opportunity for such passed around the end of April.
The main Russian base for re-building and re-equipping their shattered units is across the border from Kharkiv at Belogograd. That makes it easy for the Russians to siphon off reinforcements for that area.
@Render thank you, I appreciate the update @jurban @killagator
@jurban @killagator
Pt 1:
Yes, very much so. The shortening the line to be defended here is very much to Ukraine's advantage. The downside is this is the last line. The ground behind this line is steppe land and very difficult to defend.
I don't know that they're depending on anything in particular at the moment. I do know that Ukraine still has about 1/3rd of its forces uncommitted in reserve.
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