Sept 18- Bogodan Polovko, Returning to Kup’yans’k & latest from UK Def & ISW
A reportage thread published September 17, 2022
Returning to Kup’yans’k by Bogodan Polovko
Reportage thread September 17, 2022
Today I have witnessed what does the life look like in the city of Kup’yans’k, that has been recently liberated and is still shelled hundreds of times every day. We have delivered food, medication, and evacuated those who were in need the most, I will provide some details in a thread.
Streets are mostly empty. People there have lived for months without power, gas, water, or connection. Shortly after we arrived a huge rainfall started and people were rushing to collect water from the building draining system:
Lots of roads, bridges are totally damaged and are unusable, so navigating around the city is still very difficult and impossible without guidance:
Because of the many dangers not many aid organizations are allowed to go there, and if they are, things need to be done very quickly because as a soon as people are gathering to receive aid, if detected, Russian artillery is trying to hit your location:
We reached our first stop in Kharkiv and there was lots of joy and happiness, but the two main characters that were trying to steal all of the attention were these two:
From this trip my two personal heroes are these two folks, Oleksiy who has been tirelessly doing this work since the start of invasion, and Kira with her beautiful blue and yellow manicure and she proudly displayed to us:
Oleksiy’s, organization “Український благодійний альянс” is one of the organizations that @razomforukraine partners with on the ground help those that are most in need, so feel free to support our all-volunteer 501c3 organization to keep doing the good work!
P.S i apologize for numerous typos as it’s late night in Ukraine and I wanted to put this out there while memories are vivid and fresh.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 18 September 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: http://ow.ly/9AFA50KMkRl
The Study of War
Kateryna Stepanenko, Grace Mappes, Angela Howard, and Frederick W. Kagan
September 17, 9:30 pm ET
Click here to see ISW’s interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This map is updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.
Russian forces continue to conduct meaningless offensive operations around Donetsk City and Bakhmut instead of focusing on defending against Ukrainian counteroffensives that continue to advance. Russian troops continue to attack Bakhmut and various villages near Donetsk City of emotional significance to pro-war residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) but little other importance. The Russians are apparently directing some of the very limited reserves available in Ukraine to these efforts rather than to the vulnerable Russian defensive lines hastily thrown up along the Oskil River in eastern Kharkiv Oblast. The Russians cannot hope to make gains around Bakhmut or Donetsk City on a large enough scale to derail Ukrainian counteroffensives and appear to be continuing an almost robotic effort to gain ground in Donetsk Oblast that seems increasingly divorced from the overall realities of the theater.
Russian failures to rush large-scale reinforcements to eastern Kharkiv and to Luhansk Oblasts leave most of Russian-occupied northeastern Ukraine highly vulnerable to continuing Ukrainian counter-offensives. The Russians may have decided not to defend this area, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repeated declarations that the purpose of the “special military operation” is to “liberate” Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Prioritizing the defense of Russian gains in southern Ukraine over holding northeastern Ukraine makes strategic sense since Kherson and Zaporizhia Oblasts are critical terrain for both Russia and Ukraine whereas the sparsely-populated agricultural areas in the northeast are much less so. But the continued Russian offensive operations around Bakhmut and Donetsk City, which are using some of Russia’s very limited effective combat power at the expense of defending against Ukrainian counteroffensives, might indicate that Russian theater decision-making remains questionable.
Ukrainian forces appear to be expanding positions east of the Oskil River and north of the Siverskyi Donets River that could allow them to envelop Russian troops holding around Lyman. Further Ukrainian advances east along the north bank of the Siverskyi Donets River could make Russian positions around Lyman untenable and open the approaches to Lysychansk and ultimately Severodonetsk. The Russian defenders in Lyman still appear to consist in large part of BARS (Russian Combat Army Reserve) reservists and the remnants of units badly damaged in the Kharkiv Oblast counteroffensive, and the Russians do not appear to be directing reinforcements from elsewhere in the theater to these areas.
Key Takeaways
Russian forces continue to prioritize strategically meaningless offensive operations around Donetsk City and Bakhmut over defending against continued Ukrainian counter-offensive operations in Kharkiv Oblast.
Ukrainian forces liberated a settlement southwest of Lyman and are likely continuing to expand their positions in the area.
Ukrainian forces continued to conduct an interdiction campaign in Kherson Oblast.
Russian forces continued to conduct unsuccessful assaults around Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
Ukrainian sources reported extensive partisan attacks on Russian military assets and logistics in southern Zaporizhia Oblast.
Russian officials continued to undertake crypto-mobilization measures to generate forces for war Russian war efforts.
Russian authorities are working to place 125 “orphan” Ukrainian children from occupied Donetsk Oblast with Russian families.