The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have launched counterattacks and recaptured lost positions in eastern Ukraine and inside Russia, according to news and combat reports on Wednesday.
The tactical successes of Kyiv’s forces were a setback for a Kremlin strategy that has deployed relentless firepower and accepted often massive losses in men and equipment, as the price of its attempts to permanently gain ground from the AFU.
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Russian milbloggers on Tuesday confirmed Ukrainian troops in the Pokrovsk sector, the epicenter of a grinding Kremlin offensive since early 2024, advanced more than a kilometer (1,100 yards) on an 8-kilometer (5-mile) wide front to break into the Russian-held village of Pishachane in the Donetsk region.
Video published by the 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skala deployed to the Pokrovsk sector, showed its infantry supported by bomber drones pushing through the village of Pishachane and winkling out Russian defenders in a professional-looking night attack. The geo-located images showed careful tactics and liberal use of grenades by Ukrainian assault troops.
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A Skala statement claimed two Russian soldiers were taken prisoner, with pro-Moscow milbloggers confirming the loss of the village. Unconfirmed reports said AFU units had also taken two villages adjacent to Pishachane – Dachenske, Vodyany Druhy - where Ukrainian infantry was reported to be digging-in.
The AFU lost control of Pishachane, a tactically important settlement controlling supply routes to the city of Pokrovsk on Jan. 7-9 following waves of Russian attacks, the geo-location tracking group DeepState reported on Wednesday. The AFU’s Army General Staff (AGS) made no direct comment on control of Pishachne in its daily situation update.
In Russia’s western Kursk region, where a surprise Ukrainian offensive launched in August initially carved out a sizeable chunk of Russian Federation territory centered around the town of Sudzha, combat reports said that Ukrainian units had recaptured lost defensive positions west of the Russian village of Malaya Loknya.
Drone video published by Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces on Tuesday showed dozens of infantrymen and up to five armored personnel carriers attacking positions under Russian artillery and mortar fire. Tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and combat engineer carriers were also visible. An official statement said the images showed elements of the 82nd Air Assault Brigade - a formation independently geo-located to the eastern flank of the Kursk salient – carrying out the assault.
The Ukrainian advance on the south-eastern flank of the Kyiv-held salient inside Russia pushed a wedge some five kilometers (3.5 miles) and three kilometers (2 miles) wide into Russian positions. Previous action reports had identified the backbone of Russian defenses in the area as being the 177th Marine Infantry Brigade, a coastal defense unit originally based in the Caspian region. Unconfirmed reports said the 177th also lost control of the nearby village of Fanaseyevka.
Unconfirmed reports on Ukrainian military social media claimed elements of Ukraine’s 21st and 22nd Mechanized Infantry Brigades carried out supporting attacks and had advanced around 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles). The 21st Mechanized Infantry Brigade is considered a high-quality formation thanks to its unique Swedish training and equipment which includes Sweden-modified Leopard 2 tanks and CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles. The unit has been fighting in the Kursk region since late November.
Notwithstanding the Ukrainian counterattacks in the Kursk and Pokrovsk sectors, Russian assaults in those areas continue. On the west side of the Kursk salient assaults by Moscow’s troops on Monday and Tuesday liberated some 12-15 square kilometers (4.5-5/8 square miles) of territory around the town of Sverdlikovo. Those attacks were continuing on Wednesday, the Ukrainian military news platform Militarniy reported.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to demolish AFU formations in the Kursk region” and said hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or wounded and nearly 40 Ukrainian combat vehicles destroyed over the past 24 hours. However, battle reports from both sides contradict the claims, and Kyiv Post researchers found no reliable evidence to support a massive Ukrainian defeat. Most accounts said active combat had dropped off dramatically on Wednesday and the front line was generally quiet.
Baku-based military analyst Agil Rustamzade in an interview with the Ukrainina UkrLife news channel on Wednesday said of developments in the Pokrovsk sector: “In the past two or three days I am seeing that in the Pokrovsk sector the pace of (Russian) attacks is falling off. You can’t say for sure it will be for the long term. But the tendency is clear… for the past three to five days we are clearly seeing that the quantity of Russian assaults is shrinking.”
A Ukrainian army statement on Wednesday said that 30 out of 95 engagements recorded by Kyiv forces over the past 24 hours had taken place in the Pokrovsk sector. During periods of intense Russian attacks in January, those figures rose above 150 assaults a day, half of them in Pokrovsk sector.
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