The moment of a mine explosion of an American HMMWV armored car operated by a Ukrainian crew during one of the recent attacks on the positions of the Russian Armed Forces.
NEWS UPDATE VREMIVKA SALIENT EVENING JUNE 12
First Ukrainian gains and then some areas retaken by Russian forces. There has been hard battles all day long on the Vremivka SALIENT. First we had the usual Ukrainian night offensive and then the counteroffensive by Russian 127th Division.
During the early morning Ukrainian forces took control of Novodarivka (1) and the third settlement in the Mokri Yali River valley, Storozheve. Later on during the day the main part of the fourth valley settlement Makarivka (3), came under Ukrainian control.
At noon Russian 127th Division started a major counteroffensive. Mainly towards Makarivka, but also towards Storozheve on the left flank and north of Urozhaine on the right flank. Minor offensive operations was also made in the vicinity of Levadne (3) and Novodarivka (1). The russian counteroffensive was supported by massive artillery and air bombardments.
As a result of the Russian attack and the bombardment, Ukrainian forces retreated from (the farm) Levadne and Russian forces retook it. Ukrainian forces has avoided taking control of Novodarivka so it's again in the green (contested) zone. The Ukrainian forces has also been driven to the northern outskirts of Makarivka. Russian attacks are ongoing.
The aim of the Russian forces are not to reclaim all the lost settlements, but to retake Makarivka and the Russian defences west of Storozheve. By doing this they secure the only supplyroad to Rivnopil (4) and the northern defences (red line). If that supplyroad is cut the Russians must withdraw from that defenceline 4 km to the south to a new defenceline (white line). That wouldn't be catastrophic, but RuAF want to hold the forward defenceline (red shaded) as long as possible, to increase Ukrainian losses. To hold the northern line the western flank also must be secure. That's the reason why Russians forces spend so much energy on Levadne and Novodarivka.
In general the entire Vremivka salient is hard to defend, since there are few supplyroads. Several of the roads are also dirtroads (yellow) and barely usable in bad weather. The main supplyroads (purple) in the east are situated outside the defenceline in the north. Blahodatne doesn't even have any direct contact with neighbouring settlements. Ukrainian forces don't have to take the salient. It would be enough to cut the supplyroads on the eastern and western side to force the RuAF to withdraw from the entire salient. Instead the UkrAF has spent lot of energy with frontal assaults on the northern part of the salient with heavy losses (picture 3).
RuAF wants to keep the Ukrainians away from their main defencelines as long as possible, so that most of the Ukrainian forces are spent when they reach the main defences. On picture 4 you'll see that the first Russian major defences (black dots) are more than 10 km to the south and the first (of two) main defenceline are more than 15 km to the south.作者: 井冈山卫士 时间: 2023-6-13 06:56:45
NEWS UPDATE VREMIVKA SALIENT NOON JUNE 13
In general both sides seem to say the same thing about the situation. The main difference is about who control Makarivka. The most detailed report is from Russian Yuri Podolyaka on Telegram. According to him UkrAF started yesterday from the red line and advanced at the farthest to the blue line and then the Russian counteroffensive retook areas up to the white line. FYI I drew the three coloured lines, for easier understanding.
According to him UkrAF still control a large part of the high ground in the north and some open terrain east of Makarivka. The area lost and later retaken by RuAF are the heights west of Storozheve, Makarivka settlement and the heights east of Urozheine and the river valley.
The equally reliable prorussian Rybar, neutral SuriyakiMaps and proukrainian DeepStateUA have three different descriptions of the situation on Makarivka. According to Rybar it's in Russian hand, according to SuriyakiMaps it's contested and according to DeepStateUA it's in Ukrainian hands, so you see it's hard say what's the truth. But since there are no corroborating information we put Makarivka as disputed.
The same applies to Novodarivka and Levadne. Most sources say that they are contested and I agree. Yesterday I said Levadne was in Russian hands again, but that seems just to have been a temporary visit by a Russian patrol, checking if the Ukrainians really were gone.