25 Sep: Relentless! Ukrainians take by storm 2 towns simultaneously - Reporting from Ukraine

Day 579: Sep 25

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

First of all, today, Russian sources admitted that Ukrainian forces advanced toward Novoprokopivka, established control over the last fields in front of the settlement, and entered the settlement itself. However, it was not the only settlement that Ukrainians finally entered in this direction. Today, it was finally confirmed that Ukrainians also entered Verbove and officially started the second big battle in this region.

Recently released combat footage by the Russian side revealed how a Ukrainian armored fighting vehicle was exiting Verbove. Unfortunately, the vehicle got on a mine, which is why Russians published the video, but based on the practice with western armored fighting vehicles, the crew likely survived. Since the vehicle was exiting the village, it means that it successfully delivered additional assault units to the settlement and that Ukrainians got a foothold in the northern part of the settlement. Later, Ukrainian sources confirmed that Ukrainian forces managed to advance in this direction.

Such an advancement was only possible because Ukrainians cleared almost all trenches and fortifications on the second line of defense around the village. As you can see, the supply road that Ukrainians used to deliver their assault units is located right between the two lines of fortifications. By establishing control over them, Ukrainians secured their flanks and gained some room for maneuver. But they also did not stop there and continued to widen the bridgehead.

Today, Ukrainian fighters from the 71st Brigade released a video showing how they were repelling a Russian counterattack after they successfully captured and cleared one more Russian trench network. Ukrainians managed to rebuff the attack and retain control over the newly captured positions, continuing the gradual but steady movement forward.

Other Ukrainian fighters released a video where they tested a prototype of an anti-personnel mine-clearing drone. This drone would be useful for clearing the newly captured area from mines, especially the trails, to avoid losses when moving between friendly positions.

Ukrainian drone operators published a video showing how they are conducting artillery preparation on the remaining section of the Russian defense line. The attacks imply that Ukrainians will continue conducting broad attacks to make sure to fix Russian troops along the front before penetrating the main direction.

Today, Ukrainian drone operators also spotted a whole platoon of Russian tanks on the Ukrainian flanks. At first glance, it seemed like Russians were preparing for a heavy counterattack, however, when the drone operator zoomed in, he revealed that these were inflatable balloons in the form of tanks. As it turned out, Russian forces tried to create a semblance of readiness and possibly force Ukrainians to relocate additional forces to protect their flanks instead of pushing Russians out of Verbove. Some analysts claimed that the goal was to make Ukrainians use up their shells on false targets, but in this case, Russians did not put any effort into masking them in a believable enough way and just put them in the open so that Ukrainian reconnaissance teams notice them as soon as possible, and raise a false alarm. Unfortunately for Russians, it was a waste of time.

In the meantime, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky finally confirmed that Abrams tanks arrived in Ukraine. He said that the Defense Ministry had already received the tanks and was preparing them for reinforcing brigades that are conducting the counteroffensive operation. And the modern western tanks make a huge difference on the front due to their advanced guns that have a range of 4 km, which allows these tanks to act like snipers. If a Ukrainian assault team faces difficulties with a particular fortification, it takes the tank about 8 minutes at maximum speed to get to the firing position and unload dozens of high-explosive shells while still being multiple km away from the target, minimizing the chances of getting detected. And this tactic proved to work, as the defenses are gradually breached, while losses of these tanks were reduced almost to zero.