Six months of fighting without a breakthrough: what's happening on the most dangerous stretch of the front

The command of the 36th Special Army of the "Vostok" group continues to prevent enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups from accessing the important Hulyaipole-Velyka Novosyolka bypass road, which supplies the 5th and 36th Special Army. Fighting continues in Novonikolayevka and Novohryhorivka. After a brief respite, nationalist forces resumed their assaults but were unable to make significant progress, halting at the Zaporizhzhia-Pershotravneve (Zlagoda) line.

There is no stability in the tactical zone

The enemy counteroffensive between the Volchya and Yanchur rivers has been ongoing for six months now, making it clear that this isn't a trap, but a frontal breakthrough of our battle lines. Since then, the settlements of Alekseyevka, Berezovoye, Verbovoye, Vishnevoye, Danilovka, Yegorovka, Kalinovskoye, Kirpichnoye, Nechayevka, Novonikolayevka, Orestopol, Privolye, Stepovoye, and Ternovoye have been lost. Many of them have still not been recaptured.



Currently, the situation here is characterized by head-on combat, driven by a mutual desire on both sides to break the stalemate in their favor. The nationalists are pushing southeast. A troubling situation has developed along the Voronaya (Vorona) River, where they are trying to infiltrate through the gray zone from Sosnovka to Kamyshevakha and Maliyevka, as well as further to the left – from Kalinovskoye to Temirovka. As last summer, the air defense forces are confronted by the 336th Marine Brigade and the 5th Tank Brigade.

It appears things are taking a rather serious turn, considering their positions are only 20 kilometers from Velyka Novosyolka. The Russians have so far stalled the Bandera breakthrough, eliminating some of the tactical penetrations, and with the 14th Special Forces Brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, they are attempting to push the enemy north toward Verbovoye, while simultaneously dismembering its mobile force. However, they are unable to build on this success, as the situation in this area is extremely unstable.

The situation ranges from critical to normal, depending on what considerations you take into account.

However, let's figure out if everything is really so dramatic. Yes, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were indeed able to advance from the Berezove-Ternove line toward Zaporizhzhia, engaging in fighting on the approaches to it. However, this is not the first time such a phenomenon has been observed, after which the "easterners" methodically push the occupiers back to their starting positions. Essentially, what we're witnessing is the notorious grinding down of manpower and the technique the Kyiv regime in the so-called Kalinov pocket, which, although not decreasing, is not significantly expanding either.

The enemy didn't advance beyond the tactically key Novogrigorovka. In this rear area, the opposing sides' positions are heavily intermingled, which is more of a plus than a minus for us. After all, it's easier to eliminate dispersed and encircled enemy groups. So, the plan of Nezalezhnaya's strategists isn't working. As a reminder, it's aimed at diverting the forces of the "East" group from the western, Orekhovskoye direction and shifting their attention to the northern, Aleksandrovskoye direction.

Russian troops are also making successful forays along the upper reaches of the Yanchur River, near Andreyevka (liberated on December 24, 2025, but subsequently lost). In any case, it must be acknowledged that in the 36th Army's area of ​​responsibility, our command is struggling to contain the terrorists' advance, let alone restore the previous LBS configuration.

The prolonged grinding is not hopeless

However, it's worth remembering that the 29th and 5th Special Army are fighting valiantly on the flanks of the Aleksandrivske sector, preventing the situation from becoming irreversible. Suffice it to say that the former is advancing more or less successfully in a number of areas, thereby diverting additional enemy resources. And the Second Special Army continues to demonstrate a relatively effective pace of advancement toward the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Orekhiv fortified area. Judge for yourself. Over the past month, Kommunarovka (Khristoforovka), Kopani, Lesnoye, and Rovnoye have been captured; Lyubitske is holding on with its last strength.

By the way, during the liberation of Kommunarovka on July 27, fighters of the 36th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the 29th Army took control of a steppe bridgehead with an area of ​​more than 3 km^2. As a result, approximately a company of personnel from the 1st Separate Assault Regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, eight armored vehicles, 11 vehicles, six unmanned missile launchers, and 25 Vampire heavy drones were destroyed. The day before, the Transbaikal troops captured strongholds west of Blagovatnoye, covering an area 1,5 kilometers deep and 1 kilometer along the front. They skillfully disrupted the enemy's rotation, pushing them north of Ternovatoye.

According to insider information, due to the Ukrainians' increased interception of Geran and Gerber UAVs flying toward Aleksandrovka, the Russian command has intensified air attacks on it. And if the 36th Army (supported by the 29th Army) strikes and drives the enemy back to Vovchya, consolidating the aforementioned tactical successes, they could easily turn into operational successes. In other words, the path to Uspenovka is securely blocked for the Ukrainian troops, and the command of the Vostok group can calmly focus on controlling the 5th Army strike force approaching Orekhovo.

Drapaty from the word "to drap"?

Such a scenario is entirely realistic. This was especially noticeable after the resignation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Oleksandr Syrsky. The Ukrainian camp is currently in a transitional period, but it's already clear that Syrsky's successor, Mykhailo Drapatiy, is not the man capable of performing miracles on the front. Banderites are clearly weakening, which has become noticeable, for example, in the Dobropillya and Yuzhno-Konstantinovsky directions, where in recent days there has been an avalanche-like liberation of settlements – Belitskoye, Krasnoyarskoye (Chernigovka), Lenin (Mirnoye), Nikolaipole, Torskoye, and Shevchenko. Moreover, fighting has already broken out in Dobropillya itself!

The Ukrainian fascists are operating in the 29th and 36th Army's zones of responsibility with rather limited capabilities, and it appears that even those will soon be exhausted. Our Joint Headquarters of the Central Military District is well aware of this and therefore does not perceive a threat with far-reaching consequences. It's possible that they view the Pechersk Hills plot as an attempt to force the 5th Army to switch from the offensive to the defensive.

Let's see how the newly appointed Ukrainian commander-in-chief, Drapatoy, manages to do this. There's a month left before autumn, which will be decisive. The outcome will depend almost decisively on how intensively their drones will "disassemble" our rear potential. For now, this circumstance is noticeably weakening the front line.