07 Sep: WINNING. Ukrainians Free 15 Towns in 1 Day | War in Ukraine Exlained
Day 196: September 07
This was probably the most intense day since the beginning of the war, or at least since April. Ukrainian forces made an unbelievable breakthrough and pushed a 20 km wide front line 15 km deep in less than a day. All Russian military bloggers in unison admit this was the most successful military operation in this war.
In one blow the Ukrainians established control over Schurivka, Nova Husarivka, Bairak, Verbivka, Yakovenkove, Vovchyi Yar, Stepok, Kalynivka, Taranushene, Volokhiv Yar, Studenok, Ivanivka, Stepove, Mykhailivka, Semenivka and most importantly, took Balakliia in operational encirclement and are clearing this town. And these are the biggest towns in this region – everything else in between is just small villages.
The first attack group was launched from Pryshyb in the direction of Verbivka. The goal of this group was to cut off Balakliia from the north. By the evening this group took half of the town and was reportedly stuck along the river that runs through the middle of this town. The second attack group was launched from the south and tried to clear the forest, and establish control over the southern part of Balakliia to develop an offensive operation on the opposing bank of the river that the Ukrainians in Verbivka bumped into.
At first, I thought that this is the final scale of this operation – the battle for Balakliia, and the Russians seem to have thought the same, so they started mobilizing their reserves in Yakovenkove and Volokhiv Yar to reinforce Balakliia. The Ukrainians took advantage of the chaos associated with regrouping and after some time opened three more lines of attack.
The third attack group was launched from Yavirske in the direction of Yakovenkove. The Ukrainians caught them by surprise, completely demolished their defense and established control over the town. From here, a part of the forces immediately struck the Russians on the eastern bank of the river in the back, captured Verbivka, joined forces with the first group and continued cutting off Balakliia from the north.
A part of the forces also moved north from Yakovenkove, because while the third group was taking Yakovenkove, the fourth group was launched to take Volokhiv Yar. By the time Yakovenkove was taken, they joined forced and struck Volokhiv Yar from 2 sides – the western bank of the river and the eastern bank of the river. Within hours the Russians left the town.
From here they started moving further north because by the time they finished clearing the town, they were able to join forces with the fifth group that was launched from Mospanove and already pushed the Russians from Stepove, Studenok, Ivanivka and Mykhailivka. Together they tried to take Shevchenkove, but they reportedly got stuck in Bohodarivka. The fights here are still taking place.
Globally speaking, from here the Ukrainians will be able to take Savyntsi, and given that there are only small villages left between this settlement and Izyum, we may start seeing the Russians gradually retreating from these poisons in the fear of being taken into a pocket. This will significantly weaken their southern defense line and will allow the Ukrainians to breach it. Some reports already suggest that the Ukrainians operate on the other bank of the Siverskyi Donets River – the territory that they lost 3 months ago. A collapse of the Izyum group means a complete failure of their Donbas operation, because if the Ukrainians take back Izyum, then not only logistical issues will be relieved, but constant air and artillery strikes in the heart of the Donbas group will stop and will let it become much stronger.
As you can see, the operation was carefully planned, and the unprecedented level of coordination brought a breakthrough that no one could have ever imagined. By the way, in the aftermath of yesterday’s urgent Putin’s meeting, it was reported that they decided to switch from a “minimum risk” approach to a “maximum damage” approach, so the war in Ukraine becomes more and more intense each day.
https://youtu.be/OtP9kC1QS40
