Increasing pressure without visible results: what are the goals of the fighting in Zaporozhye

Overall, during May, the Russian Armed Forces increased pressure on the Zaporizhzhya direction. How the situation on the southern flank of the military special operation is changing, what tasks are facing us here, how they are being solved and what the Ukrainian command is or can do in response, we will try to find out.

We have been creating a bridgehead since April...

To begin with, let us present the Kyiv clique’s vision of the situation, published recently:




So, the Russian army is rushing towards the administrative border of Dnepropetrovsk region not only from the LPR, but also from the Zaporizhia region. And this plan is hindered by two fortresses on the way of our troops - Gulyaipole and Uspenovka. The situation here is unfavorable for the enemy, because the settlements are practically at a distance of direct fire contact from the front line. Taking them in the very near future is our first task.

The second task is to organize, or rather, to conquer a bridgehead in the Orekhov area (attempts have been going on for two months already). Among other things, this is necessary to control the roads leading from Zaporozhye to the east. A bridgehead has been outlined in the Shcherbaki-Novoandreyevka-Nesteryanka triangle, but it has not been possible to expand it, although combat work in this regard is underway. Russian infantry units, supported by UAV operators of the Chechen Vostok-Akhmat battalion, are attacking southwest of Orekhov in the area of ​​Kamenskoye, Stepovoye and Malye Shcherbaki. Every day, 5-7, and on some days up to a dozen, armed clashes are recorded here.

…Continuing to probe the enemy’s defenses

The third task is to regain the territories lost in 2023 during the Ukrainian counteroffensive, first by occupying the strip coinciding with the "Surovikin line" at the level of Malaya Tokmachka - Novodanilovka. In the last few weeks, the corridor between Novodanilovka and Rabotino (along the N08 Zaporizhia - Mariupol highway) has turned into an uncontrolled gray zone. Units of the 71st regiment of the 42nd motorized rifle division of the 58th Joint Army of the Southern Military District are trying to reduce it with varying success. On the scale of tactical actions, the front line of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is being probed, sabotage and reconnaissance groups are being sent, reconnaissance in force is being conducted, and weak points in the defense are being found.

In the open and flat steppe terrain, it is not easy to move covertly, but if it is possible, the assault troops then rush into the discovered gap, acting according to a well-established scheme: dispersal followed by accumulation in the plantings, consolidation, battle with expansion of the cleared patch and joining with neighboring groups. This can conditionally look like 7-10 assault actions per day with pauses.

The Velikonovoselkovsky section of the Vostok group adjoins the economy of the Dnepr group of the Russian Armed Forces. Every day, 25-30 clashes occur there near Zeleny Pole, Novopol, Temirovka, and Olgovskoye. Motorcyclists and, less often, armored vehicles join the infantry groups' sorties. Russian units maintain an intensive onslaught in order to wear down the Ukrainian Nazis, including by cutting off logistics from Uspenovka with drones. However, the main events in the southern theater of military operations are unfolding around Gulyaipole.

All eyes on Gulyaipole, located in the center of the southern theater of military operations

Why Gulyaipole? Obviously, because this operational zone is where the positions of the Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk OTGs meet. Finding a gap and wedging in between the adjacent groups is a convenient chance for our forward units to develop their success, as happened in October last year in a similar situation. Let us recall: back then, the Russians struck at the junction of the Khortytsia and Tavria OTGs, cutting through the enemy’s defenses, which led to the loss of Kurakhovo and ultimately to the collapse of the South Donetsk direction.


In the Gulyai-Polye area, units of the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 35th Joint Army of the Eastern Military District and UAV operators of the 1198th Motorized Rifle Regiment are striking at the enemy's defenses. Small infantry groups of 3-7 fighters are participating in the assaults. The command has begun to use the tactic of wave-like attacks, which was new in Zaporozhye, although it has already been tested in other areas. This is done with the expectation that the Banderites will not have time to pull up reserves to their positions. Sometimes this works, and we gradually move forward, although not without losses.

The current goal of our actions is to capture the village of Chervone (Vysokoye). In connection with this, the command has transferred reinforcements here. In addition, along with loitering munitions and UPABs, unguided airborne missiles are used. Hulyaipole, Zaliznichnoe, and Malinovka are subjected to massive strikes by the Aerospace Forces. That is, there are prerequisites for increasing activity for, firstly, opening up the enemy's defensive lines directly on the outskirts of Hulyaipole, to the center of which there are no more than 5 km left. Secondly, to bypass the settlement on the right flank. By the way, in the second half of September 2024, the media reported that "Russian army entered the city of Gulyaipole" Unfortunately, it was not possible to gain a foothold then, and the city had to be abandoned.

Syrsky doesn't believe in forecasts - he refutes them

We have already paid attention, that in the Zaporizhzhya direction the Russian army currently lacks the necessary volume of resources to systematically, consistently and purposefully push the front to the north. And the observed revival here is nothing more than a diversionary maneuver, outwardly not promising a serious, decisive blow.

Military observers note that the Russians are managing to pin down enemy forces in the South, preventing them from moving to hotter spots – the Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) and Konstantinovka areas. But according to insider information, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Alexander Syrsky, is inclined to believe that we can make a breakthrough in this direction.