23.12.2024
The Ukrainian Defense Forces recently regained lost positions on the front line in the western part of Zaporizhia Oblast. At the same time, Russian troops advanced in the areas of Kupyansk, Toretsk, Pokrovsk, as well as in the Kursk Oblast of the Russian Federation.
In particular, in Kursk, after a pause of several weeks, the Russians have again begun using armored vehicles in attacks. This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Zaporizhia direction
Russian and Ukrainian sources did not report any fighting in the Hulyaipol direction (in the east of Zaporizhia region) on December 22. Units of the Russian 38th Motorized Rifle Brigade are operating against the Armed Forces of Ukraine there.
Geolocation footage from December 22 indicates that Ukrainian forces have recently regained lost positions in the central part of Kamiansky (northwest of Robotyne and south of Zaporizhia). A Russian blogger complained that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had pushed Russian forces away from the northern part of Kamiansky on the eastern bank of the Kakhovka Reservoir.
At the same time, propagandists claimed that the Russian Armed Forces had “successfully stopped” the Ukrainian offensive and “cut off the attacking unit from supplies and reinforcements.” They reported local Ukrainian ground attacks in the Kamianskyi area on December 20 and 21. They also claimed that on those days the occupiers had carried out ground attacks in the Pyatikhatki area (southeast of Kamianskyi) and Novoandreyevka (northwest of Robotyne). One blogger tried to assure that Russian troops had captured several Ukrainian positions in the direction of Orikhiv (west of Zaporizhzhia region).
ISW has not found any confirmation of these propagandists’ statements, although analysts have noted that unmanned aerial vehicles from the Chechen battalion “Vostok-Akhmat” are conducting reconnaissance in the area northwest of Robotyne.
Kupyansky direction
Russian troops are reported to have advanced slightly in the southeastern part of Dvorichnaya, northeast of Kupyansk. In the same area, the Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled an intensified mechanized attack by a Russian platoon near Synkivka.
According to ISW, the occupiers continued to attack east of Kupyansk in the area of Petropavlivka and Kucherivka; southeast – in the area of Zagryzove, Kruglyakivka, Stepova Novoselivka and Boguslavka; southwest of Svatove near Hrekivka, Novoyehorivka and Novosergiivka; west – in the area of Zeleny Gay and Nadiya; northwest of Kreminna in the area of Ivanivka, Terni and Druzhelyubyvka; west – near Torske; southwest – in the area of Dibrova.
Torets direction
Geolocation footage released on December 22 indicates that Russian forces have advanced into the northern part of Toretsk. They have conducted offensive operations near the city itself, to the east of it in the Druzhba area, and to the southwest near Sukhaya Balka.
Pokrovsky direction
ISW reports that Russian troops have advanced in western Dachenske (south of Pokrovsk) and captured the settlement. They have also conducted offensive operations near the district center itself; to the east of it in the area of Promynia and Myrolyubivka; to the southeast – near Lysivka; to the south – near Zeleny, Dachenske, Novy Trud and Novoukrainka; to the southwest – in the area of Novovasylivka, Novoelizavetivka and Novoolenivka.
Kursk region of the Russian Federation
Russian military advances are reported east of Kruglenky (southeast of Koreneve). Although the Russians claimed that Russian troops had entered and captured this settlement and advanced 900 meters into central Kurylivka (south of Sudzha), ISW found no confirmation of this.
It is noted that Russian troops continued offensive operations southeast of Koreneve in the area of Novoivanivka and Kruglenky, north of Sudzha in the area of Malaya Loknia, Cherkasy Porichny and Pogrebki; to the northeast – near Martynivka.
The commander of a Ukrainian battalion operating in Kursk said that Russian troops recently began using armored vehicles in attacks after conducting exclusively infantry assaults in previous weeks.
As OBOZ.UA reported, an agent of the partisan movement “Atesh” in the grouping of Russian troops “Vostok” in Zaporizhia passed on important information about the location of the occupiers , which allowed the Armed Forces of Ukraine to make adjustments to the plans for the aggressor’s offensive in southern Ukraine. These are the coordinates of the command post and the location of the personnel of the 147th Engineer and Sapper Regiment of the Russian Armed Forces.