This tracks perfectly with all the intel I have gotten over the past week and a half. I wrote about this yesterday, Russia is being driven out of Soledar, their primary attacks are south into Bakhmutske. Their positions north of the factory have been systematically destroyed.
Note that yesterday I was skeptical about Russian attacks into Soledar, but I only marked it because both Russian and Ukrainian sources made the same claim. I really think it was BS, videos like this show why.
I've updated my area of control around Soledar. Russia is reduced to 3 small side streets and a factory.
Updated the area of control around Kodema. Ukraine controls the high ground, the town itself is abandoned.
Kodema in Google earth:
Top left: from above, top right: looking north at the town, bottom left: looking west into the town, bottom right, looking southeast from the high ground.
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Russia has a severe manpower shortage on every front. In Kharkiv, around Slovyansk, around Siversk, around Bakhmut, around Avdiivka and Marinka, throughout all of Zaporizhzhia, and especially in Kherson.
Whether Russia likes it or not, they will be forced to abandon positions all over Ukraine due to their insufficient infantry. They will have to pick places to consolidate around, and Ukraine will regain control of everything else.
At the same time, Ukraine is attacking in every direction simultaneously. They are moving north towards Izyum. They are crossing the Siverskyi Donets river, they are marching towards Lysychansk, they are retaking Soledar and moving south and east from New York.
So I’m just getting around to reading this now, but Rybar went on a day long hissy fit because his own pro-russian readers said that what russia did was a warcrime? So his response was to basically say “we’re russian, warcrimes is what we do, haven’t you read tolstoy?“ clown show
The images of the mi-28 helo posted today was not shot down today, it was shot down in April. It was an amazing day, I remember it well. Russia flew a helo to attack Ukrainian positions. It was shot down. They sent a helo to hunt for the downed helo, and that was shot down.
The helo photographed and published today was one of these two.
Ukraine has cleared enough gray area that their current positions are close to where they crashed. They sent some scouts out to check it out, that is where these photos come from.
Regarding the huge explosion in Balaklia today, I had heard Russia was using the gas station to store ammo. I could never figure out which gas station because there are like 5 or 6. One of them has a big building though so I kinda felt it might be that one.
I don’t really have an update to publish today. I don’t want to talk about Kherson or Zaporizhzhia and nothing much happened in Donbas other than Russia getting smacked in the teeth by several small counter attacks.
There are some things I could say about Kherson. The bridges are wrecked, they are finished. Russia has to use ferries and helicopters to move supplies across the river. Helicopters cannot possibly bring enough supplies to sustain a fight. They are reliant on ferries.
Russians line up at a position, hop on the ferry as fast as possible, and go across the river in small batches. Maybe 10-20 vehicles worth of supplies. They then have to use mostly civilian trucks to distribute supplies.
I haven’t posted an update in a few days. Many things happened, some of which I will talk about and some I will not. Some areas changed a lot, others not at all. I will step around the map slowly.
I heard, without details, that Ukraine changed its deployment in the Kharkiv area. Russian sources claim Ukraine plans to attack north up the E105 toward Velyki Prokhody, Mali Prokhody, Dementiivka. I have no reason to believe this is accurate, but I figured I would mention them.
I do not know the current status of Udy or Sosnivka. Russian propagandists claim Russia captured both, but I have not seen any evidence. Videos emerged of Russia patrolling north through Udy with weapons at the ready.