Counterattacking Ukrainian Assault Troops Have Reached Their Objective: A Russian Field's Army's Front-Line Base
But the 1st Assault Regiment may lack the combat power to capture Uspenivka
Nearly two months after Russia’s battlefield communications collapsed, and Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the southeast to take advantage of the chaos, Ukrainian forces are closing in on their main objective in the area: the village of Uspenivka, the front-line base of the Russian 36th Combined Arms Army, one of two field armies aimed like daggers at the free city of Zaporizhzhia, 50 miles to the west.
When Elon Musk’s Starlink abruptly bricked Russia’s thousands of smuggled and stolen satellite terminals in early February, grounding many Russian drones and blinding many Russian headquarters, Ukrainian forces swiftly organized two battlegroups—and counterattacked.
In the southern sector of the southeastern front, a battlegroup composed of elite assault units backed by mechanized units pushed back against Russian regiments clinging to the town of Huliaipole. The counterattack didn’t move the no-man’s-land very much, but it did blunt the Russians’ momentum toward Zaporizhzhia.
A second battlegroup made up of air assault, assault and mechanized units enjoyed greater success in the northern sector of the southeastern front. Led by the 95th Air Assault Brigade, the battlegroup swept through the no-man’s-land west of Uspenivka, clearing out potentially hundreds of Russian infantry.
