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Mar 3, 2025 9 tweets 7 min read Read on X
All along the front, the #Ukrainians 🇺🇦 are fighting the #Russians 🇷🇺 for the initiative and are conducting small tactical counterattacks, buying crucial time to reinforce defensive positions in the rear that #Russia 🇷🇺 can't afford to give #Ukraine 🇺🇦.
Stay with me in this thread while I analyze which new defensive lines were built and which reinforced, from #ChasivYar to #Zaporizhzhia.

🧵Thread🧵1/⬇️Image
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2/🧵

Lately, #Ukraine 🇺🇦 has been launching many small counteroffensives all along the front and has been successfully repelling #Russia 🇷🇺's attacks, with February being the month of least #Russian territorial gains since summer 2024.
It is though important to correctly interpret the objectives of these small counterattacks and debunk common beliefs of an incoming big counteroffensive. The objectives are:
1. Buying time
2. Tactical position improvement
3. Questioning Russian initiativeImage
3/🧵

As said, the crucial time bought by these localized counterattacks is being put to use by reinforcing defensive positions in the rear. Let's start analyzing this process more in-depth with #ChasivYar.

Trenches:
- No visible changes.

Anti-tank ditches:
- New line north-east of Kostyantynivka.
- Extended the two already existing lines east of the city.
- New line between the city and Ivanopillya.
- New line south-west of Kostyantynivka.

Dragon's teeth:

- New line crossing the railway at the northern exit of Chasiv Yar.
- 3 new lines at the eastern entrance of Kostyantynivka.
- Extended line at Bila Hora.
- New lines and extensions south of Kostyantynivka and Ivanopillya in correlation with the worsening of the situation in Toretsk at the start of February.

Barbed wire:

- Extended line east of Kostyantynivka.
- New lines east of Ivanopillya.Image
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4/🧵

Moving on to the one everyone was waiting for, #Pokrovsk.

Trenches:

- New (likely Slovyanka-style) trench systems belonging to the new Prosiana line.
- Some more systems belonging to the Mezhova - Slovyanka line were dug.
- 3 new trench systems at the north-eastern entrance to Novopavlivka.
- Many new trenches along the Pokrovsk - Pavlohrad road and behind the Hryshynka river.

Anti-tank ditches:

- New ditches dug around Havrylivka belonging to the Prosiana line.
- Extended ditch south of Novopavlivka.
- New ditch at the north-eastern entrance of Novopavlivka.
- Slightly extended ditch west of Muravka.
- Significantly extended ditch north of Slovyanka.
- New ditch south-east of Andronivka.
- 3 new ditches dug along the Pokrovsk - Pavlohrad road.
- Extended existing ditches along the same road.
- New ditches behind the Hryshynka river belonging to the homonymous line.
- New ditches south of Shevchenko.
- New ditches west of Shevchenko just south of the Vodyana river.
- New small ditch north of Rodynske.
- Extended ditch east of the railway east of Rodynske.
- Extended ditch north of Myrnohrad.
- Slightly extended ditch north-east of Dobropillia.
- Significantly extended ditch south of the Bychok river.
- 2 new long ditches dug west of Kostyantynivka north of the same river.
- New ditch north-west of Kostyantynivka.
- New ditch south-west of Kostyantynivka.

Dragon's teeth:

- New very long line around Prosiana and east of Havrylivka belonging to the Prosiana line.
- New line north-east of Novopavlivka.
- New lines west and east of Muravka.
- Many new lines between Novopidhorodne and Serhiivka.
- New line north-west of Serhiivka near the Pokrovsk - Pavlohrad road.
- New lines east of Myrnohrad.
- 2 new lines north-east of Dobropillia.
- 3 new lines north of the Pokrovsk - Kostyantynivka road.

Barbed wire:

- New very long line around Prosiana belonging to the Prosiana line.
- Komar - Bahatyr line in process of completion.
- New line south of Sribne.
- New lines all around Troiitske.
- New lines west of Nadiivka/Nadezhdynka.
- New line south-east of Muravka.
- New significant line guarding the western entrance to Pokrovsk.
- New lines defending the tips of the treelines north of the Pokrovsk - Pavlohrad road.Image
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5/🧵

And now for the Zaporizhzhia direction, which is getting more significant by the day because of the worsening situation at Velyka Novosilka.

Trenches:

- New trench system south-east of Zaporizhzhia city.
- New trench systems (likely Slovyanka-style) north-east of Uspenivka.Image
6/🧵

In conclusion, #Ukraine 🇺🇦's increased use of barbed wire all along the front is noticeable, with time spent without #Russian 🇷🇺 attacks often translated into reinforcement of existing frontline positions. It was also possible to observe a general speeding up of the fortification placement process, and I think the pace will continue to increase in the coming weeks and months.
7/🧵

The most active direction was by far #Pokrovsk, where #Ukrainian 🇺🇦 forces, as said, are using to the maximum extend their "free time" to reinforce positions in the rear.
As always, I really want to re-iterate that fortifications are not the only thing one should analyze when drawing one's own conclusions. Above all, command reforms are needed, and in some specific directions manpower issues are still very well present. Fortifications are complementary to a military that functions efficiently.
7/🧵

Thanks for reading this thread! I would've really liked to make it longer, but as you've seen from my posting frequency, I'm under bad time constraints because of my studies.
Still, if you liked it, please consider following me, reposting this thread to help my channel grow, joining my Telegram channel here: t.me/PlayfraOSINT and checking out my Ukraine control map here: google.com/maps/d/u/1/vie…
Have a great rest of the day/night! 🫡
8/🧵

(eng) Dear viewers, if you are currently fighting or are near the front line, it would be great if you could write to me personally and express your opinion on the situation and relevant topics. Your opinion is extremely important to me!
Telegram: @Playfra
Discord: playfra

(ру) Дорогие зрители, если вы сейчас воюете или находитесь недалеко от линии фронта, было бы здорово, если бы вы могли написать мне лично и высказать свое мнение о ситуации и соответствующих темах. Ваше мнение крайне важно для меня! Telegram: @Playfra
Discord: playfra

(укр) Дорогі глядачі, якщо ви зараз воюєте або знаходитесь недалеко від лінії фронту, було б чудово, якби ви могли написати мені особисто і висловити свою думку про ситуацію та відповідні теми. Ваша думка вкрай важлива для мене!
Telegram: @Playfra
Discord: playfra

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More from @Playfra0

Feb 6
1/ 🧵 Berdyansk sector: the most complete mapping ever made of Russian defenses (41,000 structures).
⚒️🇷🇺

Legend:
⬜️ Trenches
🟨 Ditches
🟦 Dragon's teeth

🗺️Interactive map:

Thread 1/⬇️ google.com/maps/d/u/1/vie…Image
2/🧵

After weeks of tedious mapping of every single trench, foxhole, emplacement, ditch, blockpost, dragon's teeth, and barbed wire line, I've finally finished the Berdyansk sector, one of the most heavily fortified pieces of territory in the whole of Ukraine.

The total count is as follows:
- 40,000 trenches, foxholes, emplacements, firing positions
- 450 separate anti-tank ditches
- 600 separate dragon's teeth lines
- 220 separate barbed wire lines

Let's look at the most interesting things I found along the way.
3/🧵

The area of the Ukrainian 2023 Velyka Novosilka counteroffensive.
De-facto, Russia's line "0.5". It was designed to absorb the first blow of Ukraine's counteroffensive and soften the Ukrainians for the first line of defense. Image
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Read 15 tweets
Jan 30
1/🧵 The situation in and around fortress Kostyantynivka: is it in danger, what are the main problems, and what's next. Image
2/🧵

Kostyantynivka is a quite sizeable city in northern Donetsk Oblast, with a population of 67,000 as of 2022, and is part of Ukraine's formidable Kostyantynivka - Druzhkivka - Kramatorsk - Slovyansk defensive node, where Kostyantynivka is the southernmost city of the four.
These four cities are factually the last of their size still in Ukrainian-controlled Donbas.Image
3/🧵

Ever since 2023, up to this day, Kostyantynivka has served, and continues to serve, critically important purposes for Ukrainian forces in some of the hottest areas of eastern Ukraine, like the Bakhmut, Toretsk, Chasiv Yar, and Rusyn Yar sectors, being used, for example, as an accumulation hub, logistical base, and (probably) command point.Image
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Read 14 tweets
Jan 2
1/🧵

Pokrovsk - Dobropillia general update (26/12 - 01/01) Image
2/🧵

Pokrovsk industrial area. Russian soldiers move in waves of groups of 1-3 soldiers along the highway.
In the orange square, very frequent and large traffic of infantry is recorded.
From there, they cross the railway into the industrial zone along the indicated routes. Russian forces seem to still be unable to consolidate their positions there.Image
3/🧵

Just east of this area, Russian forces tend to move as shown in the picture, mostly following the urbanized area but also attempting infiltrations in the treelines just north of Pokrovsk. Image
Read 11 tweets
Dec 8, 2025
1/🧵
About the recent severe worsening of the situation in #Siversk: events that led to this and information from the field.

Unfortunately, in the last 2 weeks, after more than 3 years of effective defense of the sector by Ukrainian units, Russian forces made significant progress in the Siversk direction and in the city itself.Image
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2/🧵

The main unit commanding the city's defense is the very experienced 54th Mechanized Brigade (with battalion "K-2" drones "Sky Fury").
Because of the gradual prioritization of other directions and the de-prioritization of more dormant and/or stable ones like Siversk, the Ukrainian command has not allocated any big amount of resources to the Brigade in the last months, or even years, choosing to distribute them in more critical sectors instead. As such, because of slow attrition, manpower and other needs of the brigade were not replenished at a sufficient rate, making it slowly become severely understaffed in manpower up to today.

Map from @UAControlMap: google.com/maps/d/u/0/vie…Image
3/🧵

Taking advantage of this, recently the Russian command finally reinforced the sector with new brigades, adding them to the ones made up of terrible-quality DPR and LPR forces, which severely impeded any progress on their part in the last years, among other reasons.
Read 9 tweets
Oct 17, 2025
1/🧵Uspenivka sector, Pokrovske front, according to information from the field. Short update thread.

In the last few days, the situation, finally, significantly improved for Ukrainian forces after the transfer of the reinforcements I talked about here ().

🧵Thread🧵1/⬇️Image
2/🧵

After a period of generally large successes in this sector, in the last days Russian forces have been suffering a lot in wounded and dead servicemen, and, while further north near Vyshneve fast advancements are still recorded, they factually didn't advance by a meter near Uspenivka in recent days (the orange polygon you see is a correction, and DeepState updates are being published with a delay and generally diminish Russian gains here).Image
3/🧵

Until now, the Russians advanced well to Uspenivka, effectively exploiting the very well-built Ukrainian trenches (that were simply abandoned by Ukraine) to accumulate their own manpower and transfer it without Ukrainian FPV threat. Once they reached the Yanchur river, it was imperative for them to force it immediately to exploit an almost complete lack of any Ukrainian organized defense effort, but to do this it was essential to secure the farm at 47.770945, 36.454224 (east of Novomykolaivka), and the small part of Novomykolaivka located east of the Yanchur river (1 single line of houses) at 47.771161, 36.447422.Image
Read 8 tweets
Sep 15, 2025
🇺🇦⚔️🇷🇺 Day 1300, comprehensive frontline and rear situation report: territorial changes, trends, strategies and objectives of both sides, fortifications.

🧵Thread🧵1/⬇️ Image
2/🧵

Zaporizhzhia Oblast', Stepnohirsk sector.

Russian forces continue offensive operations in the sector, despite generally low media coverage.
The Russians gather up in Plavni's center to move through the gray zone to northern Plavni, and accumulate there. After this, they try to move into southern Prymorske, but are eliminated in the accumulation phase or cleared out by frequent Ukrainian infantry raids.

The Russians also often try to move through the kill zone in the fields north of Kamyanske, but the area is open enough for Ukrainian drone operators to control well and eliminate any movement, causing high casualties to the Russians.

Further northeast, the Russians constantly attempt to move into the 3rd microdistrict. This is because the district is composed of still mostly intact high rise buildings, that can be used for a safer accumulation for further assault operations.
From the 3rd microdistrict, the Russians seem to prefer attacking Ahrarna St. in southern Stepnohirsk.
Because of this predictability, the Ukrainians are zeroed in and constantly counterattack with all fire methods available.

Because of little successes evidenced after trying to take Stepnohirsk head-on, the Russians are slowly shifting their attention eastwards. An accumulation is recorded northeast of Kamyanske in the indicated area.

In general, the Ukrainians seem to be effectively holding the borders, combining fire damage with active defense, and achieving a favorable ratio of casualties with the Russian side. Russian successes here, at the moment, are not significant in any way.

White = trenches
Yellow = ditches
Blue = dragon's teeth
Gray = barbed wireImage
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3/🧵

Zaporizhzhia Oblast', Pokrovske - Huljajpole direction.

In the Uspenivka sector, Russian forces are advancing through vast rural areas. The Ukrainians can do little to nothing to counter this because of the almost total lack of manpower in this particular direction, that has not seen activity since 2022, and from which many units were transferred to other areas deemed more critical.
The trenches you see in this direction are either empty, because of the critical lack of men to man them, or unused, because they are outdated relative to drone warfare, as they are situated in the middle of fields and uncovered.
At the moment, fighting is ongoing for Olhivske, and Russian forces came close to Novoivanivka, for which fighting will likely soon start.

A bit north, after the capture of Zaporizke without much resistance, the village of Novomykolaivka was captured soon after. Russian forces are expected to continue along this small valley to Kalynivske, which suffered heavy FAB bombardments last week.

Near fortified Berezove, Russian forces decided to bypass both this village and Ternove, seemingly after encountering resistance, and advanced significantly between the 2 villages in the treelines.
This forced the Ukrainians to retreat from Ternove, for which fighting is ongoing, in favor of some outdated fortifications just north of it, which, as said multiple times, provide only an extremely small advantage.Image
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Read 9 tweets

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