In late October, Russian troops, after months of fierce fighting, reached the Oskol River south of Kupyansk. This was the main objective of the offensive, which began in 2023. After that, Putin said that two groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, numbering five thousand and 10 thousand people, were blocked on the banks of the Oskol. In fact, after the capture of the villages of Kruglyakovka and Kolesnikovka on the banks of the Oskol, the offensive stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Russian units attempted to expand the bridgehead in the southern (towards Borovaya) and northern (towards Kupyansk) directions, they found themselves squeezed on both sides by drone attacks from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The next target of the attack would likely be the city of Liman, south of Kupyansk. Through this, they can reach the outskirts of the cities of Kramatorsk-Slavyansk (however, they are located across the Seversky Donets River; in 2022, Russian troops failed to cross the river in this area, after which Liman was liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To advance along the river to the south, Russian troops must capture Kupyansk: the main road along which troops can be supplied to Oskol passes through this city from Svatovo. Another option is a major offensive from the east through terrain with sparse roads, rivers, swamps and forests. For two years, the Russian Armed Forces have been unsuccessfully trying to do both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in recent months the situation has changed: the Ukrainian Armed Forces have a chronic shortage of forces, and the most combat-ready units from Kupyansk have been transferred to the Kursk region. This has allowed the Russian Armed Forces to push back the Ukrainian defenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kupyansk can only be captured by a blow from the north. And the Russian troops have delivered this blow. On November 13, two columns of armored vehicles broke into the eastern part of the city (the area of \u200b\u200bthe Kupyansk-Uzlovoy station on the east bank of the Oskol) along the railway and landed troops in residential and industrial buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-61.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the advancing troops. Judging by the published videos, several Russian armored vehicles were hit. Several Russian soldiers were captured right in the center of the eastern part of Kupyansk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not yet clear whether the Russian Armed Forces will be able to hold ground in Kupyansk. If this happens, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will have to leave a significant part of the bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Oskol. In the worst case, the road to Liman will be open for the Russian army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kurakhovo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The attack on Kurakhovo, the most important supply hub in southern Donbass, has begun. Russian forces (as in Kupyansk) were able to penetrate deep into the residential area from the most protected direction \u2013 from the east, from the side of the recently captured village of Maksimilyanovka. From there, Russian troops broke into the southern outskirts of Kurakhovo \u2013 to the village of Dalneye, where they were temporarily stopped by a counterattack by tanks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the main blow of the Russian armed forces is delivered to the northern and southern flanks of the Ukrainian defense. North of Kurakhovo, Russian troops, having captured Selidovo, Gornyak and Kurakhovka, are advancing to the western edge of the Kurakhovka reservoir along two routes \u2013 along the coast from Kurakhovka and Gornyak and from Selidovo to the south. To the north, the Russian Armed Forces reached the village of Sontsovka, just five kilometers from the western edge of the reservoir.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n From the south, from the Ugledar area, another group is advancing towards Kurakhovo in three directions. In October, it captured the villages where the battalions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had retreated after the loss of Ugledar: Shakhterskoe, Novoukrainka and Bogoyavlenka. Then Russian units approached the village of Trudovoye, beyond which, in Uspenivka, there is an important crossroads. From there it is about 10 kilometers to Kurakhovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Uspenkova is complicated by the entry of the Russian Armed Forces into their rear at Dalney. As a result, all Ukrainian troops east of Uspenivka are threatened with encirclement. There, significant forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to stop Russian units from breaking into villages on the banks of the Sukhie Yaly River. It is possible that the Ukrainian defenders will soon have to abandon the remaining villages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, the southern group of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will clearly reach Kurakhovo later than its northern \u201cneighbors\u201d: it must overcome not only the Sukhie Yaly River, but also the heights to its north. Between the northern and southern groups there is a water reservoir with a dam on the Volchya River at its western end. On November 11, the dam controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was blown up, most likely by Ukrainians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Probably, the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fears, first of all, a significant advance of the Russian troops from the north. Perhaps it allows its troops to withdraw from the northern shore of the reservoir. South of the Volchya River is Kurakhovo and the important Donetsk-Zaporozhye road, which the Ukrainian troops plan to defend to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kursk Region<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The bridgehead of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region continues to shrink. Ukrainian troops have abandoned the Glushkovsky area, where in October they tried to respond with an offensive to the attacks of the Russian Armed Forces in the west and east of Sudzha. There, the Russian troops reached the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian troops were never able to dislodge the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the \u201cOlginskaya\u201d grove \u2013 a forest between the regional center of Korenevo and Sudzha. There, as Vladimir Putin said, two thousand Ukrainian soldiers were allegedly surrounded. However, it turned out that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are supplying the salient along the roads from Malaya Loknya, and Russian troops are now breaking into the forest head-on.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Russian Armed Forces are still gradually pushing back the defensive positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces west of Sudzha. They are trying, despite the counterattacks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to gain ground in Novoivanovka. They are attacking (with losses and not very successfully) Malaya Loknya \u2013 the most important point of defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian units have also stormed part of the village of Darino. Its loss could cost the Ukrainian Armed Forces dearly: the village is located on the eastern bank of the Snagost River, closer to Sudzha, on the banks of which the Ukrainian army tried to hold its defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian troops are attacking the Ukrainian Armed Forces bridgehead in the Kursk region from the east as well. In early November, they attempted to capture the village of Plekhovo south of Sudzha with a column of armored vehicles \u2013 only to lose equipment. But then they unexpectedly bypassed the village from the north, crossing the Pshel River by boat, and began fighting on the northern outskirts of Plekhovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, the Russian offensive in the Kursk region has slowed down: as the front line shrinks, the resistance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is intensifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is in deep crisis. Russian troops, despite increasing losses, continue their offensive in the south of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,7,3830],"tags":[58,1156,1976,3395],"class_list":["post-21434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-science","category-research","category-war-in-ukraine","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-war","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21441,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21434\/revisions\/21441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-63.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-65.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n