Ukraine Cross Crucial Bakhmut Rail Line, Close To Cutting Russian Supply Road

Ukrainian forces continue to press their advantage around Bakhmut as depleted Russian forces in relatively unprepared and inadequate defensive positions give way before repeated assaults. JL 

Euromaidan Press reports:

Ukraine passed the defense line Russia formed along the Bakhmut railway embankment, which means the Ukrainians have advanced significantly, securing new positions between Klishchiivka and Bakhmut. Ukrainian drone operators hunted down so many Russian vehicles inside the city that the Russians were forced to put nets every 30 meters over (key) streets in order to minimize losses. Ukrainian forces have established indirect fire control over the  main highway, cutting off Bakhmut’s southern supply road with artillery. Russian Lt General Andrei Sychevoi was fired for unorganized, and ineffective human wave counterattacks on Klishchiivka and Andriivka that led to unsustainable losses and further collapse of the defense.

Today, there are a lot of updates from Ukraine’s east.

Map: Screenshot from the video

Here, Russian sources finally confirmed that Ukrainians managed to pass the new defense line that Russians formed along the railway embankment, which means that Ukrainians have advanced significantly, and Russians no longer expect to get these positions back.

Map: Screenshot from the video

The first area where Ukrainians managed to breach the Russian defense is north of Klishchiivka. Russian sources reported that Russian forces experienced extremely heavy artillery and mortar fire, which made the tree lines simply untenable. Russians continued to reinforce them despite perpetually losing men but soon had to retreat anyway.

Map: Screenshot from the video

This is when Ukrainian ground forces were activated and pushed the retreating Russian units as far as possible. Russians reported that they engaged in encounter battle and that the Ukrainians used professional assault units because the artillery and mortar fire was very precise and devastating. As a result, Ukrainians managed to push Russians out of multiple tree lines north of the village, and now Russians are mostly holding defense in the countryside along the small river. Ukrainian fighters released a video showing the newly captured Russian positions near railways.

Another footage shows how Ukrainians are shelling the small bridge in front of the lakes east of the village. Russians turned it into a shelter and fortification, which is why Ukrainians are not assaulting these positions immediately.

Ukrainian strike on a Russian-controlled railway bridge near Klishchiivka. Screenshot from the video.

Some sources also mentioned that loser Ukrainians secured new positions inside the forest between Klishchiivka and Bakhmut and got close to the city. Even though it is still too early to talk about the ground attack on Bakhmut from the south, Ukrainians have already started attacking it from the air.

Recently released footage by the Russian side shows that Ukrainian drone operators hunted down so many Russian vehicles inside the city that Russians were forced to put nets every 30 meters above the road in order to minimize the losses. Unfortunately for Russians, Ukrainians quickly adjusted and made their final maneuver right after the vehicle passed the net.

Russians stretched camouflage nets across Bakhmut streets to protect their equipment from Ukraine’s “kamikaze” drones. Screenshot from the video.

After achieving reasonable results around Klishchiivka and opening up the ground for new attack vectors, Ukrainians started preparing to attack Opytne.  By cutting off the road that goes through Opytne, Ukrainians will reduce the supply and support of all other settlements on the line significantly.

Map: Screenshot from the video

By establishing direct fire control over the region, Ukrainians will force Russians to make a detour, which will increase the response time to new developments, giving Ukrainians more freedom of operation.

On top of that, with a long detour, Ukrainians have higher chances of spotting Russian assault units on time and coordinating with the artillery crews to destroy the enemy already on the approach.

And Ukrainians have already achieved this to an extent. The Spokesman for the Eastern Group of Forces Illia Evkash reported that Ukrainian forces have established indirect fire control over the highway, and cut off Bakhmut’s southern supply road with artillery fire.

Due to the fact that Ukrainian reconnaissance is monitoring the area all day and night, Russians stopped using it for big transfers of forces, and only accept the risk with individual units. The Spokesman also added that Ukrainian forces are carefully tracking the Russian movement in the region and are working on establishing fire control over other logistical connections in the region.

Map: Screenshot from the video

Lastly, traditionally, after the Russian defense along the rails was breached, the Russian High Command came after the generals responsible for the region. Today, Russian sources reported that Lieutenant General Andrei Sychevoi was blamed for unprepared, unorganized, and ineffective human waves counterattacks on Klishchiivka and Andriivka that led to unsustainable losses and further collapse of the defense line and was fired.

Russian Army’s Lieutenant General Andrei Sychevoi. Photo: Open sources

And as claimed by the Russian sources, he was not just fired – a group of people unexpectedly showed up at his office, took him out, and no one has seen him since. Interestingly, this was done so fast that no formal transfer of responsibility has been done. Hopefully, this void on the command level will be taken advantage of by the Ukrainian assault units.