Russians make a surprise attack through the minefield and die - RFU News

Today, the biggest news comes from the Zaporizhia direction.

Here, Russia is intensifying its offensive with a series of mechanized assaults aimed at pushing north toward Orikhiv. The Russian forces attempted a new tactic to breach Ukrainian lines, but the defenders were already on high alert and prepared to respond.

Russia’s goals here are twofold: firstly, they want to pin down the defenders and disrupt their attention, while another Russian group is assaulting from the east, trying to get behind the Zaporizhia defense lines towards the Region of Dnipropetrovsk. Secondly, their strategic goal is to bring Zaporizhia city within tube artillery range, allowing them to disrupt Ukrainian logistics and endanger the civilian population, which will create additional problems for the Ukrainians.

To open the gates towards the regional capital, Russia needs to take control of Orikhiv, marking its operational goal. There are a lot more defensive structures west and south of Orikhiv, so if the Russians capture Mala Tokmachka, this would allow them to bypass some of the defenses, as there are fewer fortifications from this direction. The Russian command has ordered a frontal attack on Mala Tokmachka recently with elite VDV troops, who were annihilated by Ukrainian drone units.

After failing from this direction, the Russians decided to exploit the other routes from the southwest. This will allow them to send forces through at least two vectors, which will divide Ukrainian attention and give the Russians better chances. Extensive open fields enable attackers to maneuver off-road, but this creates other risks, as the area is heavily mined by both sides, so the Russians need to use vehicles equipped with mine plows.

If we look at the topographic map, Russia’s advantage in this sector is that it has control over key heights south of Mala Tokmachka. The village's lower-ground location gives Russian attackers a tactical advantage by improving their field of view and fire control, providing observation points, and enabling control over likely approaches.

Ukrainians were on high alert after the recent attack and reports from Ukrainian partisans working behind the frontline of Russian troop redeployments in the region. Due to this, Ukrainian operators are monitoring up to 15 kilometers behind the frontline with drones. This allows the defenders to detect enemy movement in time and start engaging them in the kill zone, denying them the chance to get close to the actual positions around the settlement.

Geolocated footage shows how the first 2 Russian armored vehicles were detected near the village of Myrne, around 6 kilometers from the frontline. Both hit an anti-tank mine, which immobilized them, but some Russian infantry managed to survive and take shelter in a tree line. Unfortunately for the Russians, operators of the 17th Army Corps and 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade dispatched their FPV drones and hunted down the remaining infantry and finished off the armored vehicles. One vehicle could reach Nesterianka despite being targeted by multiple FPV drones, but was subsequently destroyed and burned down. 4 Russian armored vehicles attempted to assault through the open fields near Robotine behind a mine-plowing vehicle to avoid detonating the mines. Despite their drone protection through additional cages and an electronic warfare system disrupting the signal of Ukrainian FPV drones, they were also hit and destroyed after being immobilized. The Russian soldiers, who survived the initial engagement, dismounted but were quickly hunted down. The Ukrainians were able to eliminate the Russian vehicles before they were able to reach the positions and create a direct threat to the defenders. Compensating with drones is vital because the Ukrainian positions are understaffed, as this sector was quiet, while there are several hot points on the frontline, which forced Ukraine to prioritize them and redeploy more soldiers there.

Overall, Russia adjusted its approach and assaulted simultaneously from two different directions, thinking it would be enough to overload and penetrate the well-prepared Ukrainian defenses. The Russians will continue pushing in this direction, as they see it as a chance to divert Ukrainian attention from other parts of the frontline, where they are struggling. Even if the Russians continue accumulating losses and run out of armored vehicles or the mud season makes it impossible to use them, they will switch to infiltration tactics with small infantry groups, similar to other directions.