23 Sep: Genius Tactic! Ukrainians enter the next Russian stronghold on the line - Reporting from Ukraine

Day 577: Sep 23

Today, there are a lot of positive updates from the Tokmak direction.

Recently, Russian sources reported that in the aftermath of continued offensive operations, Ukrainian forces cut off a crucial supply road between Novoprokopivka and Verbove. However, Ukrainians did not achieve it by focusing on this area directly, rather, the collapse of the Russian defense happened as a consequence of their defeats around Verbove.

Previously, I told you that Ukrainians concentrated their efforts on clearing all major fortifications located on the second line of defense and that the operation was successful, and they opened virtually complete access to the village. After that, Ukrainians proceeded to widen the corridor by shaving off the Russian defense line. Gradually, Ukrainians advanced by up to 1 km and pushed Russians away from the positions that covered their supply road between Verbove and Novoprokopivka.

What this means is that now Russians cannot redeploy their forces as quickly between the two directions and have to make a long detour. On top of that, such changes also allowed Ukrainians to protect the flanks of the attack group around Novoprokopivka. Ukrainians immediately leveraged the obtained benefits and suddenly shifted their focus from Verbove to Novoprokopivka.

Here, Ukrainians already set the proper conditions for the attack because, even according to Russian sources, Ukrainians cleared all tree lines northeast of the settlement, which means that there is only one field that separates Ukrainians from the village, and Ukrainians also established total control over all fortifications north of Novoprokopivka.

Ukrainian fighters released footage showing how they conducted powerful artillery preparation on the Russian positions on the contact line. Ukrainian artillery crews also released footage of advanced counterbattery duels showing how Ukrainian multiple-launch rocket system M270 (which is the same as HIMARS but has twice as many rockets) hunts down Russian Uragans.

Next, Ukrainians conducted an assault from the north and attacked Russian positions on the northern outskirts of the village. The attack was swift because the closest Ukrainian positions are just 400 meters away from the houses in Novoprokopivka. The attack has driven Russians away from the outer dozen of houses, and now this part of the village is in the grey zone.

Russian forces tried to conduct a counterattack and rolled out their tanks to fire at Ukrainians in the shelters with high-explosive shells. Unfortunately for the Russians, the tank either exploded on a mine or got hit with an anti-tank missile, and the crew abandoned the tank and ran away. Ukrainian drone operators finished the job by dropping a mine inside the Russian tank and causing an explosion.

Russian analysts expressed their discontent about the fact that most Russian equipment never gets evacuated from the front and instead is promptly destroyed by Ukrainians or by Russians themselves if the piece of equipment is modern, like T-90 tanks. Moreover, Russian analysts raised the question of why Russians do not make sure that all damaged and abandoned Ukrainian equipment is destroyed. The discussions were caused by the recently released footage of the evacuated Leopard tank that got immobilized by a mine at the beginning of summer. The first video with this tank was published on 15 June. The intact tank stood in one place for more than 3 months and 9 days, and after the contact line shifted south and allowed to evacuate it, Ukrainians got back one more Leopard.

Overall, Ukrainians advanced by more than 1 km along the main line of defense, cut a Russian supply road, split them into 2 groups, secured their flanks, and conducted the first assault on Novoprokopivka. As a result, Russians were driven out of the northern part of the village and were unable to restore control in their counterattack. The attacks are expected to intensify as Russian fighters reported that Ukrainians are gradually deploying additional forces to the contact line.