Ukrainian Partisans Wreak Havoc on The Russian Rear! - RFU News

Today, there is important news from the Zaporizhia direction.

Here, Ukrainian partisan networks have stepped up high-impact sabotage deep inside Russian-controlled territory, striking command posts, depots, and elite units with ruthless precision. Using car bombs, explosions, and arson, these Ukrainian agents eliminated key Russian generals and wreaked havoc on Russia’s most elite recently redeployed airborne forces.

In their biggest strike, Ukrainian saboteurs set dry grass ablaze beside the headquarters of Russia’s 35th Combined Arms Army. The fire and smoke quickly spread to the Russian base, filling shelters and trapping over a dozen staff officers. The operation combined creativity and tight coordination, as local informants mapped Russian bunkers, timing the ignition well, and withdrawing before the blaze spread so they could not be caught. Thus, the 35th Russian Army lost at least 18 of its most high-ranking officers, including 4 colonels, 6 majors, 4 captains, and 3 lieutenants responsible for the Zaporizhia offensive.

In another operation, a Russian military van tied to the Chechen Akhmat unit outside Melitopol was rigged with explosives by Ukrainian partisans, after which they observed the scene from a distance. Once the enemy soldiers got in, the bomb was blown up remotely and the partisans captured everything on video, which was later published by the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence. The blast killed five of Kadyrov’s elite special forces, damaged an electronic-warfare node, and wounded several other Russian soldiers nearby.

Another video from Melitopol shows how Ukrainian partisans awaited in ambush a group of Russian marines, arriving at a local ammunition depot likely to pick up new ammunition. However once they arrived, Ukrainians detonated an explosive, killing at least 6 enemy soldiers, destroying the ammunition stockpile, and the Russian FPV drone assembly base that it was connected to.

These sabotages come considering Russia’s recent rush of elite formations to the Zaporizhia region, with airborne and naval units being redeployed from other sectors of the front line, preparing for a potential new offensive. It will most likely support the existing Russian effort west of Velyka Novosilka, aiming to pin down the well-fortified Ukrainian defense lines in Zaporizhia while another grouping operationally outflanks them from the east. To prevent such a possibility, the Ukrainian intelligence is risking an exposure of its underground networks by not only using them to gather information but also for direct actions.

Melitopol has become a focal point of Ukrainian partisan activity, hosting an active underground campaign deep in the enemy’s logistical heartland in the south, and it is important to understand that such missions depend on dense local networks. Many partisans are residents who shelter military and intelligence operatives, provide reconnaissance, and track enemy movements, while others are specialist insertion teams from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate. Operating roughly a hundred kilometers from front lines, these cells rely on local shelter and resupply while feeding exact coordinates to Ukrainian long range drone and missile crews, enabling surgical strikes that multiply a small partisan team’s effect.

The strategic consequences of Ukrainian guerrilla warfare go beyond battlefield fatalities. Removing senior staff officers and destroying coordination hubs erodes command continuity, forces rushed personnel reshuffles and delays operational planning. That loss of key personnel makes coordinated offensives riskier and slower, benefiting Ukrainian operations on the front line. Ukrainian partisan actions also reshape Russian operational plans, with Russian reinforcements and supply convoys becoming high-value targets, and Russian commanders forced to divert additional resources to rear-area security. That dynamic complements Ukraine’s conventional posture: while regular forces hold or counterattack at the line, partisans and intelligence teams strike at depth to blunt future offensives.

Overall, Ukraine has turned rear areas under Russian control into a contested battle space where small partisan cells inflict outsized damage. The headquarters fire and the ambushes are not isolated incidents but elements of a campaign to preempt Russian buildup, dismantle logistics, and decapitate command echelons before offensives start. For Russian commanders, the warning is clear: territorial control is hollow without secure rear areas. Behind enemy lines activity is now a persistent force multiplier for Ukraine, and Russia can continue to send troops, but without secure supply lines and without local trust, its numerical advantage will be steadily eroded.