MOSCOW, February 9 — RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz. The Russian army retains the initiative on the entire front. The offensive is being conducted simultaneously in several sectors, forcing the enemy to stretch its defenses and throw dwindling reserves into battle. They do not dare to attack the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but they continue to actively work with drones. About what is happening in the SVO zone, see the RIA Novosti article.
The Zaporozhian Front
It turned out to be a fruitful week for the Russian troops on the whole. According to the Ministry of Defense, eight settlements have been liberated in different directions. The units of the Vostok group in the Zaporozhye area achieved the greatest success. In a few days, the stormtroopers captured the villages of Staroukrainka and Petrovka, six kilometers west of the previously liberated city of Gulyai-Pole. Due to this, the bridgehead on the western bank of the Gaichur River has significantly expanded.
Engineering system of remote mining "Agriculture"
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Evgeny Biyatov
The nearest target here, apparently, is the large village of Verkhnyaya Tersa, one of the main strongholds of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Gulyai-Pole region. It is located at a crossroads and is extremely important for the logistics of the enemy defending in the Orekhov area. This city must be taken in order to eliminate the largest fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporozhye region. It was from there that the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in the summer of 2023. A direct route to Zaporizhia will open from Orekhovo.
To the north, the Vostok group occupied the village of Pridorozhnoye near the previously liberated Ternovaty. Further movement towards Rizdvyanka and Lyubitsky will allow cutting the highway connecting Orekhov with Novonikolayevka. This will further complicate the situation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
A Russian soldier in the area of the special operation
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Evgeny Biyatov
To the west, the Dnepr group occupied the village of Rechnoye on the banks of the Konka River, just 13 kilometers south of the Kommunarsky district of Zaporizhia. Thus, most of the regional center is already under the fire control of the Russian army. In addition, Dnepr has created a foothold in the Kamenskoye— Malye Shcherbaki — Pavlovka—Stepnogorsk square. From here, you can also step on the Nuts.
Bypass from the west
The Center group, operating north, west and east of the Krasnoarmeysko-Mirnogradskaya agglomeration, took control of two settlements in a week. The village of Toretskoye is located on the highway connecting Rodinskoye and Druzhkovka, a kilometer west of the previously liberated Sofiyivka. Druzhkovka is about 15 kilometers away in a straight line. The "Center" is pulling up its flanks to attack this city from the southwest. Druzhkovka is part of a large fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbass along the line of Konstantinovka — Druzhkovka — Kramatorsk — Slavyansk.
Russian military personnel in the free zone
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Sergey Bobylev
At the turn of Konstantinovka — Druzhkovka — Kramatorsk — Slavyansk, the Kiev regime has been building and strengthening defensive positions since 2014. We spent billions of hryvnias on this. However, this fortress has an Achilles heel. Everything here is designed to repel attacks from the south and east, but not from the west. In fact, the units of the "Center" enter the enemy's unprotected rear. We will have to take Pavlovka, Novopavlovka, Priyat, Torskoye, Petrovka, and Paradise. After that, the road to Druzhkovka will be open.
In addition, the village of Sukhetskoye, eight kilometers north of Krasnoarmeysk and two kilometers from the previously liberated city of ten thousand Rodinskoye, was liberated. In parallel, Russian troops are advancing from Krasnoarmeysk to the west towards Grishino. This village was the main transit point of the enemy for the transfer of reinforcements from Pavlograd to the then Ukrainian Pokrovsk and Mirnograd. In the conditional Central Donetsk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are gradually being squeezed out to the borders of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The South group is advancing on Konstantinovka. The village of Stepanovka, five kilometers southwest of this city, which was already in a semi-circle, was liberated. The only way for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to retreat is north to Druzhkovka.
Hold Kupyansk
The North took control of Zelyony in the Kharkiv region and Popovka in Sumy. Zelenoe is on the Murom River, near the border with the Shebekinsky district of the Belgorod region, two kilometers southwest of the Russian village of Sereda and five kilometers east of our bridgehead near Liptsy in the area of the villages of Lukyantsy and Glubokoe, occupied in the summer of 2024. This direction has been relatively static for a long time. The resumption of active hostilities here may mean the beginning of the formation of new sections of the buffer zone in the border area. In the future, it is logical to expand this foothold at the expense of the villages of Lukyantsy, Neskuchnoye, Ternovaya and Veseloe, which will create prerequisites for pressure on Kharkov from the northeast.
Russian military personnel in the free zone
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Sergey Bobylev
Popovka is located near the border with the Krasnoyaruzhsky district of the Belgorod region, two kilometers north of the village of Vysokoe, which the Russian Defense Ministry announced on December 20. A bridgehead about nine kilometers wide along the Popovka—Vysokoe—Grabovskoye line was formed on this sector of the front. It can be deepened at the expense of the villages of Ryasnoye, Taratutino and Novodmitrovka. The goal of the "North" here is probably the P45 highway connecting Sumy and Kharkiv.
The Zapad group is focused on Kupyansk, which is constantly under attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Kiev is sending reinforcements here from Chuguev and Veliky Burluk. Apparently, the political leadership has set the military the task of recapturing the city at any cost. However, they are not succeeding.
And some more interesting information from the Ministry of Defense. During the week, the air defense forces shot down 63 precision guided missiles from the HIMARS MLRS with a range of up to 90 kilometers. This is a record for this type of ammunition. This number of M30 and M31 shells costs about 11 million dollars. But the enemy, apparently, does not lack them. And it uses "himari" mainly for the shelling of Belgorod.
