RFU News — Strategic Geopolitics

Today, there are interesting updates from the Liman direction.

Here, Ukraine’s Operation Vivaldi is far from over. Despite Russian claims that the counteroffensive near Liman has been stopped, Ukrainian forces continue advancing, crossing the Zherebets River at multiple locations and threatening Russian positions that remain dangerously under-reinforced.

Ukrainian assault groups have pushed deeper into Zarichne, breaking through Russian defenses in the northern sector and advancing toward the village center from two directions. Further south, Ukrainian troops have secured central positions in Yampil and advanced into its eastern streets, although Russian resistance remains fierce.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian infiltration groups have crossed the Zherebets toward Torske, while operations northwest of Makiivka have cleared forest positions and brought Ukrainian troops into the settlement’s southern outskirts. Another breakthrough occurred around Ivanivka, where Ukrainian forces reportedly expelled Russian troops, opening opportunities for additional crossings.

However, the river itself remains a formidable obstacle, and crossing exposed terrain under constant drone surveillance makes conventional infantry attacks extremely dangerous, so Ukraine’s response has been to introduce an entirely different approach.

Instead of relying exclusively on soldiers to assault, Ukraine’s Third Army Corps has demonstrated the potential of massed ground drones. In what Russian sources described as the largest visually documented ground-robot assault of the war, Ukrainian forces reportedly deployed twenty-eight combat robots against positions held by Russia’s Twentieth Combined Arms Army. The attacking formation included two vehicles equipped with automatic grenade launchers, eighteen carrying anti-tank weapons, and eight kamikaze robots, as each category performed a different battlefield function.

Grenade-launcher platforms were included to suppress Russian defensive positions, forcing enemy soldiers into cover and disrupting their ability to engage approaching vehicles. Anti-tank missile-equipped robots provided direct-fire capability against fortified positions and military equipment. Meanwhile, kamikaze vehicles could approach enemy defenses carrying explosive payloads, destroying underground targets.

Together, these systems demonstrated how robotic formations could combine suppressive fire, precision attacks, and explosive assaults, without exposing Ukrainian soldiers to danger, because destroyed robots can eventually be replaced, while experienced infantrymen cannot be regenerated so easily.

Russian drone operators responded with FPV drones, claiming to have destroyed or disabled numerous Ukrainian drones, although the exact losses and overall outcome remain independently unverified. Maksym Zhorin, deputy commander of the Third Army Corps, commented on the Russian video showing the claimed repelling of the attack, that despite the footage showing part of the drones being hit, some of them still reached their targets and inflicted casualties on the enemy. However, the significance extends beyond whether this particular assault succeeded, as Ukraine demonstrated a potential method of replacing infantry in especially dangerous assault roles, forcing Russian defenders to confront machines rather than soldiers.

This matters enormously around Liman, as the Zherebets River has slowed Ukrainian advances, but Russian commanders appear increasingly unable to stabilize the sector with fresh formations, as they have still not committed reinforcements. Previous Russian losses in isolated pockets west of the river have also been underestimated, leaving replacement requirements greater, while Russian officers have understated casualties or exaggerated defensive successes, as admitting the true situation could expose serious failures to senior military leadership.

That creates a dangerous incentive to delay requesting additional troops, while Ukrainian forces continue probing weak points, clearing forests and inserting small assault groups across the river, with every successful crossing creating another position Russian commanders must defend.

Overall, Operation Vivaldi represents more than a conventional counteroffensive, as Ukraine’s Third Corps is combining infantry infiltration and increasingly ambitious drone assaults to exploit Russian manpower shortages. Russian resistance remains substantial, but unless Moscow reinforces the Liman direction, its exhausted local reserves will face mounting pressure across an expanding battlefield. The greatest danger for Russian commanders is that concealing previous failures prevents them from sending the reinforcements needed to avoid the next one.