Ukraine Summer Offensive Update for June 27 AM: “A Happy Day”

Snapshot

130 square kilometers recaptured; Rivnopil, 9th village de-occupied; bridgehead over the Dnipro River taken; strategic canal outside Bakhmut taken; and; positions occupied near Mariinka retaken after 9-year Russian occupation.

Analysis

President Zelensky called it “a happy day” and credited Ukrainian gains on all fronts. 

Zone A. TO518 / Mokri Yaly River Axis - boundary of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions

·      “Defense forces have brought Rivnopil back under our control. We are moving ahead,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on Telegram. Rivnopil would be the 9^th village recaptured by Ukrainian forces during the offensive and enlarges recaptured territory to 130 square kilometers.

·      Pro-Russian sources confirmed the loss of Rivnopil and an unsuccessful Russian counterattack at Novodarivka.

Zone B. Western Zaporizhzhia

·      The Russian MoD claimed Russian forces repelled Ukrainian ground attacks near Robotyne, south of Orikhiv in western Zaporizhzhia region, while Ukrainian military spokesmen stated that Ukrainian forces advanced an unspecified one and a half kilometers in the zone.

·      Pro-Russian sources said Ukrainian forces were attacking at Robotne, Kamensky, Zherebyanok, and Nesteryanka and said the situation will be “difficult”.

Other Topics of Interest

Diane Francis Interviews Mikhail Zygar, Yaroslav Trofimov on Prospects of Russia’s War on Ukraine

Video discussion with three leading expert journalists on the current situation in Russia’s war against Ukraine republished with the permission of the Peterson Literary Fund.

Zone C. Bakhmut

·      Over the weekend, Ukrainian infantry units pushed forward between 500 and 1,000 metres outside the city of Bakhmut.

·      Ukrainian Eastern Group of Forces Commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that Ukrainian forces cleared a strategic Russian bridgehead across the Siversky-Donets Donbas canal some 8 kilometers from Bakhmut.

Other Zones & Activity, including Kherson, Avdiivka and Mariinka.

·      Ukrainian forces have crossed the Dnipro River and retaken territory on the left bank of Kherson region. According to pro-Russian Telegram channels and geolocated data cited by ISW, Ukrainian troops have seized the village of Dachi, opposite the city of Kherson, and near the destroyed Antonovsky Bridge. They have dug in and are seeking to establish a bridgehead, the channels said.

·      Russian troops are redeploying equipment from the left bank of Kherson region to Crimea, as looting intensified in the occupied territory, according to Serhiy Khlan, a member of the Kherson Regional Council.

·      Ukrainian troops advanced half a kilometer and captured “several Russian positions” outside the village of Krasnohorivka, near Mariinka in Donetsk region, which has been under Russian control for nine years, said Valeriy Shershen, press officer for Ukraine’s eastern command.

·      The number of Russian attacks on the positions of Ukraine’s National Guard on the Kupiansk and Lyman fronts has more than doubled over the past week, according to Ruslan Muzychuk, spokesman for Ukraine’s National Guard, but Ukrainian forces reportedly recaptured lost positions in the Serebianka forest.

·      Russian troops opened fire on the Volnovakha district’s village of Novyi Komar in the Donetsk region. One civilian was reported killed and one injured, according to the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

·      Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks northwest of Svatove and south of Kreminna, according to ISW.

·      Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, according to ISW.