For the first time in months, Russia 🇷🇺 launched tanks and armoured vehicles in Ukraine 🇺🇦
2 years after the large scale Avdiivka offensive, russian forces tried to storm the Pokrovsk-Kostiantynivka area of the frontline, losing around 30 armoured vehicles.
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The main use of tanks, IFV and AFV was during the Avdiivka-Donestk offensive, mainly between october 2023 and may 2024.
Then, it was slowly abandonned. Since the first months of 2025, the use of armoured vehicles nearly disappeared.
Why ?
Because Russia was slowly lacking reserves in armoured vehicles and drone warfare was making their use more and more dangerous.
Most of them have been put away from the front during months and endured some changes.
Now that the summer is finishing, the roads are getting more and more muddy.
It is thus impossible to do assaults with motorcycles and ladas while assaulting on foots without cover is increasingly dangerous. This is the main reason for this come back.
On these long videos published by ukrainian forces we can see columns of armoured vehicles and tanks assaulting ukrainian positions near Pokrovsk.
For 2 months, russians have had difficulties to reach Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, mainly failing to take strongholds.
One of the assaults was trying to reach Myrnohrad, especially taking control over the mine west of the city, a ukrainian stronghold. They lost 4 vehicles here.
Another axis was the Kostiantynivka-Pokrovsk highway. In this area, multiple russian columns have been destroyed in the previous months, one of the only one where they continued to send tanks and armoured vehicles.
However, the main assaulted direction is the village of Shakove, a ukrainian stronghold.
Russia launched multiple armoured vehicles, hundreds of soldiers and motorcycles here to break the ukrainian defenses. Shakove is protecting the whole direction.
Despite multiple assaults on Volodymyrivka, just south of Shakove, the russians still didn't managed to take it.
Now, it is mainly a grey zone and tens of soldiers have been brought here, they will probably try to gain a strong foothold here and in Shakove.
Using armoured vehicles is somewhat new this year, it is also the result of months of reinforcements.
At 0:25 there is an interesting footage. You can see that the ditch forces the BTR to use the road, which has been mined. That's how dtches should be used.
The importance of fortifications : to reach Shakove from the main assault route, they need to stay on this road (because of the 6 anti-tank obstacles).
-> it concentrates the ukrainian fire on a single road.
And it's exactly the same with infantry and barbed wire :
They need to walk in the only zones where there are no barbed wire. Here, we can see a recent picture and a 1 month old one (Novotoretsk'e).
What is happening near Pokrovsk ?
The grey zone is increasingly big, it is getting more and more difficult to consolidate any progress. Pokrovsk is still safe, fightings are ongoing in Rodynske and Udachne, while some infiltrations are ongoing in the south of the city.
The main objectif for russian forces now is to expand the Dobropilla bridgehead, by taking Shakove. Then, they will be able to connect again with their isolated troops north-west.
They will also try to consolidate gains near Myrnohrad.
In one month, the tree cover will have disapeared, preventing infantry infiltration. The weather may affect drones, which is also important to remember.
Thus, Russia has to reach (and consolidate around) Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka before the winter to assault it.
I finish this thread with the wide preparation of new defensive lines, especially away from Donbass region.
Main new lines :
-Pavlohrad-Novomykholaivka
-Vilniansk-Zaporijia
-3rd Donbass line (behind Kramatorsk)
• • •
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L'armée russe 🇷🇺 a conquis la majeure partie de Pokrovsk, plus grande ville prise depuis mai 2023.
Les infiltrations russes au sud du chemin de fer ont été consolidées, l'armée russe pousse désormais vers la périphérie nord. Myrnohrad est quasi encerclée.
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En septembre 2024, l'armée russe arrivait pour la première fois aux portes est de la ville après la prise de Novohrodivka.
Il aura fallu un an et deux mois pour contourner les défenses de Pokrovsk par le sud puis le nord-est avant de prendre la ville. (carte de @Deepstate_UA)
Il est indéniable que la bataille pour la ville aura été centrale dans la stratégie défensive ukrainienne.
La progression de 40km à l'ouest d'Avdiivka a été stoppée aux portes de la ville. Il aura fallu un long contournement et beaucoup de temps pour parvenir à isoler la ville.
The core of ukrainian strategy in 2022 was to retreat from the countrysides into large cities, this happened in the north, Nyzhin, Chernihiv, Konotop, Romny...
During the movement warfare, cities were the base of the defense, and Ukraine tryied to keep it later.
In 2023, Ukraine also based its defense on major cities, the main example is Bakhmut, for which the urban battle was one of the biggest and longest (talking about fightings inside, not in the flanks).
-> Bakhmut was the last battle fought during long time inside a city
Most maps of the war in Ukraine are showing the same perspective and the same informations. Here, you will see rivers, railways, fortifications, forests...
20 surprising maps on the war in Ukraine
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1- The frontline in december 2022
Days after the end of the Kharkiv and Kherson counter-offensive, russian army was controling less than 50% of the Donetsk region. The battle for Bakhmut just started and Donetsk was still threatened.
This map may seem old or out of context, but it actually helps to better understand the evolution of the Russian offensives in the Donbas.
One must put oneself in the shoes of the political and military decision-makers in Moscow: they had failed to take Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Odessa, to force Ukraine to capitulate, they had been humiliated in Kharkiv, and had to retreat from Kherson. It was therefore the full force of Soviet firepower that was deployed in the east of the country and became ruthless in the ensuing battles, sometimes at the cost of very heavy losses, as at Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
2- Three years in Donbas
The last 3 years of war have mainly been fought in Donbass.
After very slow and costly advances for the Russian army in Bakhmut and Avdiivka in 2023, the offensive towards Pokrovsk accelerated in 2024, with the Ukrainian army surrendering the best fortifications in the Donetsk suburbs.
The main Russian victory took place in South Donetsk, now completely under Russian control, but many months of campaigning remain, at the current pace, between one and two years to capture the last strongholds in North Donetsk. These three years have seen a constant offensive, the gradual depletion of Ukrainian reserves, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in a relentless war of attrition. On paper, the Ukrainian army has held its ground and not yielded, despite local setbacks. It remains to be seen whether it will maintain its endurance.
L'Armée Soudanaise 🇸🇩 continue d'offrir une base arrière pour les rebelles Tigréens 🔴🟡en réaction au soutien Ethiopien 🇪🇹 aux FSR.
Sur cette vidéo, 500 recrues de l'Armée 70 du TPLF participent à une cérémonie de remise des diplômes dans l'est du Soudan.
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En tout, l'Armée 70 compterai plus de 5 000 hommes basés dans l'Etat du Gédaref, à l'est du Soudan.
Ces hommes ont fuit le Tigré en 2020, lorsque l'Ethiopie, l'Erythrée et les forces de l'Amhara avaient coupé la rébellion Tigréenne de la frontière soudanaise.
La région de Welkait, à l'ouest du Tigré (annexée par la région tigréenne à l'Amhara dans les années 1990) a été prise et annexée par l'amhara en 2020, coupant l'accès au Soudan, crucial pour les tigréens.
With two months to go before the end of 2025, the Russian army continues to lay the groundwork for major battles in 2026.
With Pokrovsk falling, Putin will not stop his war before conquering Kramatorsk.
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The capture of Pokrovsk is drawing closer, culminating a two-year offensive to first clear the outskirts of Donetsk and then assault this strategic city.
Situated on a hilltop and boasting a significant rail and road network, Pokrovsk will give the russians a major advantage.
The capture of Pokrovsk is not yet a done deal, and I estimate that the battle, particularly in the suburbs, will continue for several more months.
The Ukrainian army still holds the strongholds of Udachne and Rodynske, preventing any overrun on its flanks.
Un lent génocide est en cours au Soudan 🇸🇩 et personne n'en parle
Le massacre à caractère génocidaire de milliers de Zaghawas à El Fasher n'est qu'une étape qui a débuté à la fin des années 1980.
Un génocide par étapes dans l'ouest du Soudan :
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A El Fasher, plus de 2 500 civils ont été tués dans les massacres des derniers jours après la prise de la ville.
Ce chiffre ne reflèterai cependant pas la réalité et la taille des massacres. On se rapprocherai plus d'un ordre de grandeur d'environ 10 000 morts au vu des vidéos.
Qu'est ce qui me fait venir à ce chiffre ?
Les témoignages, les images satellites, les vidéos et les données de l'arrivées des réfugiés permettent d'en douter.
Sur cette vidéo, il y a facilement plus de 1 000 hommes rassemblés avant d'être massacrés.