05 May: Unbelievable: Two Ukrainian Fighters Breach The Russian Flanks - Reporting in Ukraine

Day 802: May 05

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

The most intense clashes occurred south of Ivanivske, where Ukrainians conducted a series of counterattacks with the goal of disrupting the Russian offensive efforts and fix their troops. According to both Russian and Ukrainian sources, the attacks were successful, and later, the Ukrainian fighters of the Ninety-Second Assault Brigade published combat footage showing the actual operation.

To achieve this goal, Ukrainians had to conduct extensive suppression of Russian firing positions with FPV drones. As we know, Ukrainians are experiencing an acute shortage of artillery shells, which is why they complement their artillery firing missions with various kamikaze drone strikes. Due to the efficient work of the Ukrainian Signum and Black Raven drone units along the southern flank, Ukrainians managed to repel all Russian attacks. The activity of FPV drones was so severe that all Russian troops were hiding in dugouts or basements in the settlements along the contact line. Any Russian troops or equipment exposed on the outside were quickly detected and destroyed before they even reached the contact line. In many videos of such disruptions of reinforcements, we could see the destruction of four supply trucks, a BMP-Two infantry fighting vehicle, a BMD-Four, and many groups of infantry on foot.

Ukrainians realized the advantage of the extensive use of FPV drones to the fullest extent, which allowed them to retake the initiative and conduct the counterattack. Ukrainians decided to concentrate kamikaze drones on the Russian positions between Ivanivske and Klischiivka. This way, Russian reinforcements to the area were destroyed, starving the Russian forces of ammo and supplies. The combat footage shows a column of at least seven infantry fighting vehicles destroyed near this trench alone.

In the same video, we can see that after the Ukrainian drone operators successfully prevented Russian reinforcements from arriving at the contact line, a small group of two soldiers from the Ninety-Second Assault Brigade was sent ahead. The two Ukrainian stormtroopers entered the trench and encountered virtually no organized resistance. Therefore, they cleared the trench and secured new tactical positions. They checked the whole trench and finished off Russian soldiers hiding in their dugouts with small arms fire and grenades.

However, the provided combat footage shows only a fraction of a broader operation pushing Russians back by more than five hundred meters. Ukrainians had previously detected that Russian defenses here were weaker than the rest of the southern flank but still potent. These defenses stretched along two tree lines on open fields near a dirt road that supplied Ivanivske. In the first stage of the operation, Ukrainians had to assault much stronger Russian positions, which were softened up by concentrated drone strikes. Once the primary defense line was breached, chaos ensued among Russian forces, which started to flee to the rear or hide from drones in dugouts. By that time, the main Ukrainian force was consolidating their positions, and the bulk of the fighting was already over when the two Ukrainian stormtroopers conducted mop-up operations.

Newly gained positions also hold high tactical value because they enable Ukrainians to set up a base of operation for artillery and drone teams. This is good for the Ukrainians because now the bottleneck, through which Russian forces have to pass to get to their bridgehead, is much tighter. As you can see, the nearby dirt roads were rendered unusable by the counterattack due to the close proximity to the Ukrainian positions, so all Russian movement was restricted to just a few streets that Ukrainians could easily monitor. This will endanger the Russian offensive effort south of Chasiv Yar, for which the village is a vital staging ground.

Furthermore, Ukrainians also managed to fix Russian forces in this front section to prevent further potential breakthroughs. Redeployment of additional troops to plug the gap near the tactical bridgehead will, in turn, reduce the intensity of Russian assaults on Chasiv Yar. Ukrainians also managed to deploy...