Today, there are a lot of important updates from the Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk Oblast.

Here, under the cover of darkness, Ukrainian forces launched sudden night raids near Uspenivka, including a high-speed machine gun drive-by that stunned Russian troops. These bold strikes set the stage for a swift and coordinated effort to break the enemy’s foothold on the flank.

The goal of the Russian forces in this area is to collapse the Ukrainian positions south of Novoserhiivka by cutting off their logistics. The capture of this area would allow the Russians to widen their bridgehead and protect their logistics by establishing stable defenses along the Solona river, exploiting the most vulnerable part of the Ukrainian defense.

To cut off Ukrainian logistics, the Russian forces are trying to infiltrate the houses around Novoserhiivka and position themselves within the village. This would position the Russian fighters along the main Ukrainian supply road to Uspenivka, which the Ukrainians use to deploy their infantry across two nearby bridges on the Solona river from Novoserhiivka. 

Furthermore, the hills north of Novoserhiivka are at a high elevation, so Russian control of the village would also enable them to enforce fire control over the dirt roads to Uspenivka in the fields, which would force the Ukrainian forces to withdraw.

The main tactical disadvantages of the Russian forces are their poor logistics due to a lack of proper infrastructure to deploy a meaningful number of infantrymen, let alone mechanized units. This is because the bridge connecting the Russian bridgehead in Uspenivka with their rear positions was destroyed during the fighting, forcing them to conduct their entire assault on foot. 

Russian forces would need to cross exposed fields and the 50-meter-wide Solona River to reach Novoserhiivka, but Ukrainian surveillance of bridges forces them to attempt slower crossings through marshes, increasing detection risk. These conditions make success unlikely, as Ukrainian drones or scouts can quickly spot them, enabling rapid deployment of mechanized reinforcements via nearby paved roads.

Geolocated combat footage from the area reveals the deployment of a domestically made Ukrainian BTR-4E Bucephalus infantry fighting vehicle at night, just a few minutes after the Russian assault group was detected near the Solona river. This spoiled the attacks of Russian infiltrators whose positions were earlier detected by Ukrainian drone operators, allowing the crews of BTR-4Es to use the heavy firepower of their 30-millimeter autocannons to whose more destructive ammo and rate of fire decimated the Russian infantry units and their positions, inflicting severe losses. 

This also led to the destruction of the small ammunition cache that the Russians established near Novoserhiivka, rendering them unable to endure long-lasting small arms clashes. This set the perfect conditions for the Ukrainian counterattack in the morning, as additional BTR-4Es arrived with several infantry squads that dismounted and engaged in small arms fire with suppressed Russian units that were starved off ammunition. 

Given that their attack was spoiled and readily countered by the Ukrainian forces that quickly reacted, cleared the grey zone and forced the Russians were forced to withdraw due to heavy losses and inability to advance, sustaining yet another failure at improving their positions on the western flank of Pokrovsk.

Overall, the Russians gambled with a risky operation to reach Novoserhiivka and cut off the key Ukrainian logistics for expansion of their positions on the western flank of Pokrovsk, only to be swiftly dealt with and eliminated by the Ukrainian forces. Russians understand that in order to conduct their main offensive towards Pokrovsk they must first secure their logistics on their western flank of the city, which is why they will persist with assaults here and intensify them.

In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.