Saturday, the day following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcements that the Ukrainian Oblasts comprising Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson were part of Russia for the rest of their lives and were not subject to negotiations, was the Ukrainian Army overran the Lyman pocket that was home to 3000 Russian troops. They retreated to the east in chaos, leaving behind wounded and dead soldiers as well as abandoned equipment and vehicles. Mobilization, Annexation, and Russian Forces rerouted from The New Russian City. Lyman was a town occupied by Russia within one of the oblasts which was annexed. Everyone was eager for the reaction.
On Sunday, Ukraine launched two offensives. One of them was a follow-up of the extremely successful Kharkiv offensive that began in September.
“Combat has been restricted only to 3 Ukrainian bridgeheads that span the Oskil River in the vicinity of Horobivka, Kupiansk, and Kivsharivka. Nothing seems to be happening anywhere at the moment but the constant scuffles at the bridgeheads could be an indication we need to keep an eye on.”
The Ukrainians emerged from the bridgeheads, and cut the important Ground Line of Communications between Svatove in the north and Kreminna in the south within two days. Svatove may fall at the end of the week since Russians are in the process of removing the Russians who had already issued the evacuation of civilians.
In the south, Ukrainians seem to have erected blocking forces in the vicinity of Kreminna in order to avoid the north in their primary offensive.
Russian blogger @rybar, a Russian on Telegram, has created this video about the offensive.
The second offensive thrust sped off in the northwest of Kherson. An attack of two could result in a Lyman-type pocket with only a small number of Russian soldiers inside. The major attack took place on the north or right bank of Dnieper River. At present, the river is stopped at the village of Dudchany. Another offensive was initiated from the salient west area of Davydiv Bird oriented on Berislav. The purple line in the dotted area is the boundary of contact between Russian as well as Ukrainian forces on Saturday. It is based on an online map being circulated through Twitter.
Remember that the Russians have a major disadvantage. All bridges crossing the Dnieper were closed for around 45 days and the majority of their food and other supplies had to be transported across the river using pontoon barges.
The reality that Ukraine has the troops and equipment to conduct two distinct offensives in tandem together shows the level of logistical and tactical sophistication of the Ukrainian Army is developing. In the last month, the Russian Army has allowed breakthroughs by the Ukrainians to an operational level. It is clear how it is that the Russian Army lacks the numbers and/or the capacity in defending its line of sight. It also demonstrates blindness to operations on the Russians and permits the Ukrainians to take on large numbers of troops in a matter of minutes. It will be interesting to observe what further punishment Russian units will accept before deciding that they've got enough.
October is likely to be a fascinating month in this conflict.
