11/05/2026
Today, there is important news from the Zaporizhia direction.
Here, Ukraine achieved a significant success in Orikhiv, where Russian infiltration attempts have been pushed out of the city after nearly three months of brutal fighting. Ukrainian forces are now pressing southward along the same approaches used by Russian assault groups to prevent future infiltration. Fighting has shifted toward Novodanylivka, where Ukrainian troops are expanding their presence in contested areas and pushing the enemy from the southern part of the village, and Mala Tokmachka, with Ukrainian forces controlling half the settlement.
The importance of Orikhiv cannot be underestimated, as the town anchors Ukraine’s defenses south of Zaporizhia, and its capture would give Russian forces a valuable position. From there, and the interconnected six major roads, they can threaten Ukrainian logistics and develop further advances toward the regional capital. However, preventing its capture was exceptionally difficult, as Russian commanders enjoyed a numerical advantage, while Ukrainian defenders faced shortages of infantry, equipment, and ammunition. Russia also reinforced this direction with experienced Rubikon drone operators, supporting infiltration groups attempting to penetrate Ukrainian positions.
Russian drones threatened Ukrainian movements while small Russian assault groups exploited damaged buildings, trenches, and gaps between defensive positions. In an urban environment, even a handful of infiltrators can create serious problems. Once Russian soldiers occupy ruined buildings and establish interconnected defensive positions, eliminating them becomes considerably more difficult, so Ukrainian forces needed to prevent isolated groups from accumulating into a larger, sustainable presence.
Here, Ukrainian drone operators played a decisive role, as they didn’t concentrate exclusively on the Russians already inside Orikhiv, but attacked the reinforcements attempting to reach them. Russian movements through Novoandriivka came under drone strikes, disrupting attempts to bring additional personnel and supplies toward the city. Another important Russian approach passed through Novodanylivka, where relatively preserved roads offered Russian forces opportunities to move troops using all-terrain vehicles, which were intercepted by Ukrainian FPV drones. Despite ATVs giving speed and mobility advantage, once detected and targeted, they provided no protection, and every destroyed vehicle reduced the number of soldiers and supplies reaching Russian infiltration groups. This created a growing operational problem for the Russian command, as the troops already inside the urban area required ammunition, reinforcements, and rotations to maintain their positions. Without these, they could neither expand their footholds nor withstand the sustained Ukrainian counterattacks.
As a result, the Russian offensive began losing momentum, and despite continued attempts to reinforce, repeated casualties reduced the ability to concentrate sufficient forces for a decisive breakthrough and changed the balance inside Orikhiv. Instead of confronting an expanding Russian presence supported by continuous reinforcements, Ukrainian infantry could focus on eliminating isolated groups whose supplies and replacements were increasingly restricted. As these positions were cleared, Ukrainian troops regained control of the town and began pushing toward the approaches from which the Russians had entered. The available casualty figures for the first two weeks of October illustrate the scale of the fighting, as the Ukrainian Southern Operational Task Force reported two-thousand-seven-hundred-and-sixty eliminated Russians in the wider area, alongside more than one thousand weapons and equipment losses.
Overall, after three months of attempted infiltrations, Russia has failed to turn its numerical advantage into lasting control of Orikhiv. Ukraine’s clearing success protects a critical defensive stronghold, disrupts Russian plans for a breakthrough toward Zaporizhia and forces the Russian command to begin rebuilding the assault formations that suffered heavy losses, which could take months, with the Russians lacking reserves in numerous directions. As a result, the initiative around Orikhiv has shifted toward Ukrainian counterattacks, although fighting in the surrounding villages continues.