RUSSIANS ARE FINISHED! Ukrainians EXHAUST Russian forces AND TAKE GROUND! | War in Ukraine

Here, Ukrainians have largely exhausted Russian combat capabilities and have conducted counterattacks to regain lost positions. 

Over the past months, Russian forces have persistently tried to cross the Zherebets River to ultimately take control over the Ukrainian city of Liman. Liman functions as the Ukrainians' Headquarters in the region, from where they supply, reinforce, and rotate their forces on the front line. Despite the intensity of Russian assaults, Russian forces have not been able to even reach the Zherebets River, as all Russian attacks were halted well before they could reach the Ukrainian settlements guarding the river. 

As stated in previous reports, Ukrainian defenders in the settlements of Terny, Yampolivka, and Torske have repelled the Russian offensive effort and drained the Russians of their combat capabilities. The severity of the Russian losses is apparent, as Russians have halted their offensive actions in the area to reorganize and replace their manpower and equipment losses. 

Ukrainians realized that they could not simply sit by and wait for Russians to rebuild their strength and had to use this opening to strike the Russians back. However, despite their high losses, Russian forces still maintained a numerically larger force on the front line than the Ukrainians. Consequently, Ukrainians needed to find a way to counterattack the Russian positions despite being heavily outnumbered. 

Ukrainians managed to do this in a two-pronged operation. First, Ukrainian drone operators intensely targeted Russian infantry on the front line. Geolocated footage shows how Ukrainians were targeting Russian infantry in the trenches in front of Yampolivka with FPV kamikaze drones. Secondly, Ukrainians used their heavy octocopter drones to mine Russian supply lines toward these frontline positions with anti-tank mines. Ukrainians released drone footage of Russian tanks, Infantry fighting vehicles, and Armored personnel carriers being destroyed by mines in their attempts to reach and reinforce the Russian frontline positions. 

A Ukrainian military blogger showed that Ukrainians use these large drones, mainly at night, to prevent visual detection. He also stated that Russians use listening posts to locate and take down the Ukrainian octocopters, as they are also quite loud. Ultimately, these listening posts form little threat to Ukrainian operations, as Ukrainian military observers note that they are easily detectable themselves and destroyed with suicide drones or drone-dropped grenades. 

As Ukrainians deteriorated the Russian presence on the frontline and destroyed any reinforcements that tried to fill the gaps, Ukrainians managed to create a localized superiority in manpower to the Russians. Additionally, Ukrainians held the element of surprise, as Russian infantry still felt they had the initiative and were unprepared to form a coherent defense or even consistently wear their bulletproof vests. 

Later, Ukrainians released geolocated combat footage, showing they had begun counterattacking Russian positions. The footage shows the high preparation and coordination of the Ukrainian assault group, as they received live information from a reconnaissance drone, as well as multiple FPV kamikaze drones standing by for support. The Ukrainian assault group consisted of pure infantry with no armored support to avoid losing the element of surprise, as large armored vehicles would be quickly spotted by Russian reconnaissance. Finally, after receiving the order, the Ukrainian assault group advanced towards the Russian position along the tree line. They opened fire to suppress the Russian defenders, and after a short firefight, the Russian infantry surrendered and were taken captive by the Ukrainian fighters.

In the aftermath of these attacks, Russian forces intensified their artillery bombardments on the regained Ukrainian positions. Geolocated footage of these bombardments confirms that Ukrainians had taken full control over these positions. As Russians had lost their combat capability due to prior attacks, they were unable to mount a counterattack to follow up on these artillery bombardments, meaning Ukrainians were able to hold on despite the mounting pressure. 

In turn, Ukrainians also targeted Russian artillery systems to halt the bombardment. Geolocated footage shows how Ukrainian drone operators destroyed a Russian Grad multiple rocket launch system before it could fire on Ukrainian targets. 

A Ukrainian military blogger stated that this operation showcases the Ukrainian ability to successfully counterattack and force the initiative on the Russians despite their significantly larger numbers in manpower and equipment. The Institute for the Study of War also confirmed that based on the released combat footage, Ukrainians had indeed been able to advance along the tree lines east of Yampolivka.

Overall, a series of disastrous Russian attacks drained the Russian combat capabilities, forcing them to halt their offensive operations to reorganize and reinforce their losses. Ukrainians managed to take advantage of this operational pause to further drain Russian units on the front line and destroy any Russian reinforcements that tried to alleviate the pressure. This created a localized superiority in combat capabilities for Ukrainians, which allowed them to counterattack and regain lost positions, while Russians were unable to gather enough forces to mount a counterattack. Once again, Ukrainians have proved to be able to take the fight to the Russians despite being outgunned on nearly all fronts, improving their tactical situation in the process.