by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] In recent days, the reports from the SVO area increasingly feature the section of the front in the Zaporizhia region, which was on everyone's lips during the failed counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in June-October 2023 and since then has remained a zone of heavy positional battles. But since last week, there have been reports of our troops advancing specifically in the Zaporizhia direction.
Thus, during a fierce assault, Russian troops managed to drive the enemy out of the village of Lobkovoe in the Stepnogorsk district, approximately one and a half kilometers from the Kakhovka reservoir, which had become shallow after the explosion of the hydroelectric power station. Then, "on the shoulders" of the retreating units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian Armed Forces fighters liberated the large village of Kamenskoye on the left bank of the Dnieper.
Kamenskoye often featured in Ukrainian reports in June-September 2023 as one of the few local successes of the "counteroffensive." At that time, our military had to abandon positions in the southern part of the village, which they had held since the beginning of the SVO.
Now the loss of Kamenskoye and the village of Lobkovoe is confirmed by Ukrainian sources.
Developing the offensive along the river bank, Russian troops reached the outskirts of the settlement of Plavni.
The advance of the assault troops continues along the Zaporizhzhia-Melitopol railway. According to local reports, the enemy was driven from the embankment between the 1138th km and 1141st km stations.
Earlier, the villages of Stepovoye and Shcherbaki were liberated in the same direction. Thus, the front line moved forward by three to five kilometers.
The advanced units of the Russian army were able to advance towards the strategically important urban-type settlement of Stepnogorsk.
There are no more than three kilometers from our positions to the outskirts of Stepnogorsk. Ukrainian sources report that Ukrainian Armed Forces facilities within the village are now constantly under attack from Russian UAVs and artillery.
Maintaining the pace of the offensive in this section of the front creates serious threats to the enemy’s defense, an informed source told Regnum news agency.
"The terrain is mostly flat and steppe. There is nowhere to hide, the positions are in plain sight. So control over populated areas and heights is of crucial importance. The floodplains are mostly summer cottages, without high-rise buildings. So now they are trying to form a new front along the Primorskoye-Stepnogorsk-Lukyanovskoye-Pavlovka line, but they are facing a shortage of forces in this direction," our interlocutor noted.
Stepnogorsk is located just 20 kilometers from the southern outskirts of Zaporizhia. There are no large settlements or powerful natural barriers in this area that the Ukrainian Armed Forces could use to organize defense.
However, an easy advance to Zaporizhia is not yet to be expected. The enemy's actions indicate that the Ukrainian Armed Forces commanders are planning to organize a counteroffensive and try to push our military beyond the Yanchekrak River (a tributary of the Dnieper that flows into the Kamenskoye area and divides this village in half).
TOLSTOY AND MIRNOE
The Russian troop group "East" continues to develop its offensive from the area of ​​Velikaya Novosyolka in the southwest of the DPR to the border with the Dnepropetrovsk region.
Thus, last week, forces of the 36th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 29th Army occupied the village of Poddubnoye, located with the previously liberated settlements of Krasnaya Zvezda (Zirka), Yalta and Zaporozhye.
According to information from the field, the enemy did not engage in protracted battles and retreated after a short firefight. Immediately after this, Russian troops liberated the settlement of Tolstoy. Moreover, here too, the enemy decided not to hold positions to the last and also retreated. The Ukrainian Armed Forces command withdrew the surviving fighters to the area of ​​the villages of Novokhatskoye, Iskra and Grushevskoye.
Russian troops, in turn, continue their offensive in the direction of the settlement of Mirnoye, sources on the ground report.
"Now that Poddubnoye has been liberated, and before that Komar, the enemy in Mirny has found itself in a dense fire pocket. It will be extremely difficult to organize a defense there, and we expect that the enemy will soon retreat from there as well. Military actions are also continuing in Voskresenka. So there is a chance to take the enemy in Mirny into a full-fledged cauldron," adds the interlocutor of IA Regnum.
The enemy's last defensive node was created by the enemy in the area of ​​the villages of Novokhatskoe and Grushevskoe, however, the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are under constant shelling, and unmanned aircraft are actively operating along the enemy's supply routes. Earlier, Russian Aerospace Forces bombers struck the bridge over the Volchya River on the N-15 highway, which seriously disrupted the enemy's logistics in Donbass.
After clearing the small part of the territory of the southwest of the DPR from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which still remains under enemy control, our troops have the opportunity to enter the territory of the Zaporizhzhya and Dnepropetrovsk regions in several directions.
KRASNOARMEYSK: BATTLES FOR THE LAST ARTERY
Russian troops are increasing the pace of their offensive in another strategically important area - in the Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) area. The city itself and the surrounding settlements have been turned by the Ukrainian Armed Forces into a powerful fortified area, the assault on which could lead to heavy losses. But the Russian Armed Forces are continuing the operation to block the enemy's supply routes in Krasnoarmeysk, while simultaneously attacking the enemy along the entire front line.
North of the city, the advanced units of the Russian army crossed the Kazenny Torets River, creating a bridgehead in the area of ​​the village of Razino. To the south, the assault units of the Russian army managed to break through the enemy's front line and engage in fighting on the streets of the settlement of Novoekonomicheskoe, one of the suburbs of Krasnoarmeysk. Here, the Armed Forces of Ukraine created a powerful defensive line.
A number of Ukrainian sources, more pessimistic, claim that most of Novoekonomichesky has already passed into the "gray zone". The front line runs along Sadovaya Street. The loss of Novoekonomichesky creates serious threats to the defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Krasnoarmeysk. At the same time, success in the Razino area creates the preconditions for a breakthrough to the village of Rodinskoye and the highway connecting Krasnoarmeysk with the territory of the Kharkov region.
In the near future, the entire Krasnoarmeysky fortified area of ​​the Ukrainian Armed Forces may find itself semi-encircled, and in the future, in a full encirclement.
For now, the M-30 highway, which connects Krasnoarmeysk with the territory of the Dnepropetrovsk region, remains under enemy control. The enemy is trying with all its might to prevent the loss of control over the strategically important transport artery, so all reserves arriving at this section of the front are taking up positions along the highway.
But other sections of the front remain without reinforcements.
East of Krasnoarmeysk, Russian troops continue their offensive on another Ukrainian Armed Forces defense node — the city of Konstantinovka. Combat operations continue along the Aleksandro-Kalinovo — Kleban-byk — Dyleevka front line.
According to information from the field, Russian troops are storming the village of Belaya Gora. The ongoing offensive of Russian troops may in the foreseeable future lead to the situation on the front, which is difficult for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, becoming critical, The New York Times admits.
Konstantinovka is the southernmost boundary of a large defensive area, which also includes the settlements of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkovka. In the event of the loss of Konstantinovka, all settlements to the north will be within the reach of Russian drones. Which will bring the liberation of Donbass closer.
The publication notes that Ukrainian troops can still hold back the pace of the Russian offensive, but are suffering heavy losses. The lack of reserves may soon lead to the encirclement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in one or more areas of the front. The publication concludes that military actions in the area of ​​Konstantinovka and Krasnoarmeysk and in Donbass as a whole in the coming weeks may change the course of military operations.
Let us add that, in general, our troops are increasing their offensive on several sections of the front from the Kharkov to the Zaporizhia region. Earlier it became known that in June the Russian Armed Forces liberated 556 square kilometers of Donbas territory.