24 Mar: Imminent threat! Russians are encircling Ukrainians in Ivanivske - Reporting from Ukraine

Day 760: Mar 24

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

The most interesting news comes from the southern flank.

Here, the situation is very complex and dynamic. After the failure of cutting off Ukrainians from the south of Ivanivske, Russians decided to divert their focus to the north of the village. In this area, Russians made incremental gains which enabled them to break the stalemate and maintain their momentum in and around the village.

In previous reports, I stated how the hill to the northwest of Ivanivske gives Ukrainians a tactical advantage, enabling them to strike Russians who are trying to advance in the lowlands through the village. For this reason, Russians constantly shelled the hill with artillery and bombed it with aviation. Russians already tried to advance and take the tactical heights by conducting a turning move from the south to engulf Ivanivske but failed. Therefore, they decided to do the same but from the north of the village. Their goal is to establish a foothold on the hills, then entrench and expand their control of the hill. After that, Russians would inevitably try to establish fire control over the road to the village, force Ukrainians out, and cut off major supply lines. Once Ukrainian defenses to the south of the village are undermined, the Russian plan is to finish the operation by advancing from the hills to try to take Klischiivka into a pocket.

So, after the Russians finished conducting their artillery preparation and suppressing the Ukrainian fire, they launched a powerful attack with infantry and armored vehicles. Geolocated footage shows that in the aftermath of heavy clashes, Russians established control of part of the hill that is facing the village. Meanwhile, Ukrainians maintain some positions to the west of the hill in hopes of launching counter-attacks and regaining the lost positions.

After the capture of a tactically important hill, Russians were able to advance while facing much softer Ukrainian resistance in the village itself. For this reason, Russians launched extensive preparations with very destructive TOS thermobaric artillery systems to pummel Ukrainian positions and amplified the destruction with drone strikes. After that, Russians launched one wave of assaults into the village after another. Ukrainian fighters report that the situation is difficult but that they are holding on and knocking out Russian armored vehicles. Based on footage from the village, we can see that the village is mostly destroyed as a result of heavy bombings over the past months. Because of the lack of proper infrastructure for firing positions and sleeping quarters, neither Russians nor Ukrainians can exercise proper control over these ruins with troops on the ground. For this reason, every Russian assault into the village consists of mostly armored vehicles, in hopes of overwhelming Ukrainians with their sheer firepower and numbers, which leads to heavy losses for the Russians due to lack of infantry support.

However, Ukrainian fighters report that supply lines to the village are now also placed in danger because of the Russian control of the tactical elevation from which they use anti-tank guided missiles to strike Ukrainian vehicles moving along the road. To counter this, Ukrainians launched FPV drone strikes at Russian positions on the hill. Generally, the roads in this direction are very dangerous not only because of the Russian anti-tank fire but also because of the damage to other vital roads like the one to Chasiv Yar, and here, the situation is very intense but much less difficult.

Russians, as seen before, have resorted to scorched earth tactics to demolish any infrastructure that can be used by Ukrainians as fortifications, firing positions, shelters, or sleeping quarters. In Chasiv Yar, the extensive daily bombings with glide bombs that carry hundreds of kilograms of explosives forced the Ukrainians to no longer use the town as a point of troops rotation and treatment of wounded and instead have to use nearby towns. Ukrainian fighters report that roads to the town itself are so damaged by bombings to the point they are no longer usable. However, this comes off as a double-edged sword for the Russians. Although they inflict hard blows on Ukrainian logistics, they also cause problems for themselves in advance because they will have nowhere to establish positions...