31 May: Stupidest strategy! Russians shot themselves in the foot. - Reporting from Ukraine

Day 828: May 31

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

Here, Russians have sabotaged their own future operations while Ukrainians are seizing the initiative.

The initial Russian goal was to advance as quickly as possible and establish a deep buffer zone on the Ukrainian side of the border. This buffer zone was to extend up to 20km to push Ukrainian barrel artillery out of range of Russian military targets in the Belgorod region. However, the Russian offensive was immediately halted at Vovchansk, where Russians encountered their first major obstacle.

As you remember from the previous report, Russians were not able to break through the Ukrainian defensive belt around the high-rise and industrial districts north of the river. Furthermore, Ukrainian counterattacks severely blunted the Russian offensive, as the Institute for the Study of War reported that Russians were slowly being forced into defensive operations.

Because of the Russian offensive momentum slowing, Russians resorted to intensely shelling Vovchansk with TOS-1 thermobaric artillery and Tulip heavy mortar systems, as well as dropping a large number of glide bombs on the town. Geolocated footage shows that these strikes targeted not only Ukrainian defensive positions but also the bridges over the Vovcha River. Russian military bloggers report that this was the last intact bridge connecting southern Vovchansk to the Ukrainian defenses in the town center. Looking at the aftermath of the strike, the bridge is likely unable to sustain heavy vehicles. In contrast, lighter vehicles, cars, and especially infantry should still be able to make the journey across, meaning Ukrainians in the north are not cut off from supplies.

Russians likely destroyed these bridges to prevent Ukrainians from conducting any further counterattacks over the river, relieving some pressure on Russian forces fighting in the town.

If you want to get access to the original uncensored combat footage of all the mentioned operations, you can find it on our Telegram channel by using the QR code or the link in the description.

Destroying these bridges not only limits the Ukrainians’ ability to conduct large counterattacks into Vovchansk but, in turn, also severely hampers the Russian ability to cross the river in the future. The Institute for the Study of War concluded that Russians are destroying bridges they would need to cross should they want to penetrate deeper into Ukraine. They also state that this indicates that Russians in Vovchansk are primarily focused on maintaining their marginal gains rather than developing their offensive further. Recently released geolocated footage north of Vovchansk also shows a Ukrainian FPV kamikaze drone destroying a Russian military excavator. This Russian excavator was busy digging a trench line or bunker, further underscoring the Russian intent to go on the defensive in Vovchansk.

However, before the Russians can consolidate their gains in Vovchansk, they must first push the Ukrainians from their defensive line around the high-rise and industrial districts. As Ukrainians slowly pulled back to their strongest defensive positions, Russians expanded their control over the surrounding suburbs. To secure their flanks against a possible Ukrainian counterattack from the east, Russians also advanced towards the settlement of Tykhe. To prevent Russians from attempting a future flanking attack over the bridge here, Ukrainians decided to blow the bridge in advance. Geolocated footage shared by the engineers shows how they placed modified heavy anti-tank mines and other explosives on the bridge before detonating them from a safe distance. The original uncensored video of this operation can be found on our Telegram channel as well.

With these developments in place, the situation can develop further in three possible ways. In Vovchansk, Russians are unlikely to be able to cross the river, as they have destroyed all bridges they would need for such an operation. Additionally, the first real Ukrainian defensive line is situated behind the river, further complicating any attempt to cross it, even with pontoon bridges. On the other hand, Ukrainians...