by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] In the development of the situation in the SVO zone over the past two weeks, two trends can be identified. While units of the "North" group of the Russian Armed Forces are advancing from the state border to the south, expanding the buffer zone in the Sumy region, in the DPR our troops are approaching another section of the border defined by the Constitution in several directions. Next is the Dnepropetrovsk region.
On June 4, the Ministry of Defense confirmed that Russian troops had occupied the village of Kondratovka. The distance from this settlement to the regional center, the city of Sumy, is no more than 21 kilometers in a straight line. In some areas, the distance from the line of combat contact to Sumy is about 19 kilometers.
Footage taken by Russian drone operators is being published online, showing the northern and eastern outskirts of the city.
Earlier, our assault units in the border area also managed to dislodge the Ukrainian Armed Forces from two villages - Alekseyevka, taken under control on June 1, and Andreyevka, which Russian troops entered on June 3. The fighting continues near Kondratovka, in the area of the settlements of Yunakovka and Novonikolayevka. Footage of the raising of the Russian flag over the settlement of Vodolaghi also appeared online.
In just one day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 200 soldiers, an armored personnel carrier, six army vehicles, five field artillery pieces, and an electronic warfare station in the Sumy border area.
The enemy officers also acknowledge the worsening situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area.
The day before, Ivan Shevtsov, a representative of the 15th mobile border detachment of the State Border Service of Ukraine, stated that Russian troops had occupied “approximately 15 kilometers along the front and about 6-7 kilometers in depth.”
At the same time, according to reports from the field, the enemy is trying to stop the breakthrough by pulling additional forces into the border area.
Ukrainian troops made a series of attempts to pull Russian troops away from the bridgehead in the area of liberated Sudzha, making a series of attempts to cross the border further north - near the village of Tyotkino in the Kursk region. All attempts by the enemy to advance in this area were thwarted by air and artillery fire.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces also constantly use drones and missiles for terrorist strikes on the territory of the Kursk and Bryansk regions. In response, the Russian Armed Forces struck a series of Ukrainian Armed Forces facilities both in Sumy and in the city's outskirts. According to unconfirmed reports, the target of one of the strikes was the headquarters of the local SBU department, as well as training grounds where Ukrainian army recruits were being trained.
"WHILE THE ENEMY AWAITS THE ASSAULT..."
Our troops continue to actively advance into the DPR, 75-80 kilometers northwest of Donetsk. In the Krasnoarmeysky (Pokrovsky) direction, Russian troops are storming the settlements of Novosergeevka and Novonikolaevka in the DPR, located directly on the border of the Dnepropetrovsk region.
According to reports from the field, east of the city of Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk), Russian troops have driven the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of Nikolayevka. Some sources report the successful completion of the assault. This settlement adjoins the village of Novoekonomicheskoe, which, in turn, is part of the Krasnoarmeyskaya agglomeration. With the liberation of Novoekonomicheskoe, Pokrovsk-Krasnoarmeysk and its satellite city of Mirnograd will find themselves in a large semicircle.
South of Krasnoarmeysk, the advanced units of the Russian army are also advancing in the direction of the border with the Dnepropetrovsk region. The successful assault on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has led to the settlement of Shevchenko being semi-encircled. It is located on the T-0515 highway, leading from the south of the DPR (more specifically, from the large village of Konstantinopol liberated in March ), along the western border of the DPR through Krasnoarmeysk to Kramatorsk. At the same time, success in this direction creates the preconditions for a decisive strike to the north and the encirclement of the city, a frontline source for the Regnum news agency reports :
"Everything is going as expected. While the enemy is waiting for the assault on Pokrovsk, pulling new reinforcements into the city, including mobilized ones, we are flowing around the enemy's defense along the borders of the agglomeration. The future of the offensive in this area will depend on the assault on Novoekonomichesky - whether it will be possible to cut off the enemy's logistics or not."
A similar operation is underway in the area of the city of Konstantinovka, the first in a "chain" of cities stretching from south to north (Konstantinovka - Druzhkovka - Kramatorsk - Slavyansk). Russian troops are expanding the bridgehead created in this area in recent weeks. Fierce fighting continues in the area of the village of Yablonovka, as well as near Aleksandro-Kalinov, Poltavka and Rusyn Yar.
The offensive continues in the southern Donetsk direction, to the west of Velyka Novosyolka.
On June 3, our units drove the VSAS troops out of three strongholds in forest belts and on one of the heights west of the village of Volnoye Pole, which is located near the junction of the borders of the Dnepropetrovsk region and two Russian regions - the DPR and the Zaporizhzhya region.
The Ukrainian defense in this area is being built in the area of the village of Komar, also a few kilometers from the border with the Dnepropetrovsk region. In this direction, the enemy has repeatedly attempted to counterattack, but has been thrown back to its original positions.
SPRING FAILURES OF THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE
The results of our troops' offensive in the spring months and the first days of the beginning of summer look extremely disappointing for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The main success, of course, was the completion of the operation to defeat them in the border area.
In three months, the Russian Armed Forces in the Kursk region liberated 33 settlements, including a number of villages that the enemy held at the cost of huge losses in personnel and military equipment. "On the shoulders" of the retreating enemy, the Russian army managed to break into the territory of the Sumy region, occupy more than ten settlements and create a buffer zone of 200 square kilometers.
In Donbass, the decisive success was the breakthrough of the enemy's line of defense between two strategically important cities - Krasnoarmeysk and Konstantinovka. The created bridgehead was expanded in depth and along the front to a distance of up to 15 km. South of Krasnoarmeysk, the forces of the "Vostok" group captured the key node of the enemy's defense - the village of Bogatyr, which allowed them to be pushed back from the eastern part of Donbass to the borders of the Dnepropetrovsk region. In total, 48 villages and settlements were liberated in the DPR from March to May.
Another major success during the spring campaign was the "defrosting" of the Zaporizhzhya Front. Here, Russian troops were able to occupy at least five settlements and create a bridgehead on the approaches to the city of Orekhovo, a key settlement, control over which theoretically allows for an offensive on Zaporizhzhya.
The successes of Russian troops are recognized in the West as well. Since the beginning of spring, Russian troops have only increased the pace of their advance, expanding their zone of control by an average of 14 square kilometers per day, The New York Times reports — twice as fast as in late winter and early spring.
In just one week, Russian troops liberated 18 settlements and occupied an area of almost 200 square kilometers, according to the German publication Bild.
According to foreign media, the last week has been “black” for the Ukrainian army: Kyiv is facing precise missile strikes on the rear of its troops and is suffering defeats at the front.
Western analysts cite the depletion of human and moral resources of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as the technical superiority of Russian troops, as the reason for these failures.