Ukraine War, 17 August 2023

Hello everybody!

Since the last weekend, there is very little information – and that from both sides – and thus it’s hard to say what exactly is gong on. Essentially and briefly, it’s something like this:

-          Kupyansk: usual, minor Russian attacks, no or next to no gains;

-          Kremina: the same

-          Siversk: Bilohorivka is still under Ukrainian control

-          Bakhmut: Russians and bothsiders are claiming the recovery of at least a part of Klishchivka; I (strongly) doubt this, otherwise there would be a ‘sea’ of related videos. That said, it’s sure that the VSRF is trying to prevent a further Ukrainian advance south of Bakhmut through continuous counterattacks.

-          Zavitne Bazhannye (Staromlynivka): there are reports about Ukrainian attacks into the northern part of the village, but next to no details.

-          Robotyne: two days ago, the Russians should’ve withdrawn out of the village into a trench complex south of it, but ZSU is not yet ‘firmly controlling’ all of Robotyne. Rather busy mopping up and de-mining. And the ZSU was busy rotating its units: 47^th Mech was withdrawn and replaced by it by the 46^th Airborne (oh dear….), 71^st Jäger, and (especially) the powerful 82^nd Airborne (equipped with Challenger MBTs and Marder IFVs). In similar fashion, the 118^th Mech was reinforced by the 116^th Mech: the two are continuing the drive down the Russian trenchline from Verbove towards Novoprokopivka. So much so, Ukrainian UAVs can meanwhile ‘see all the way down to Tokmak’. Ah yes, and the Russians lost a Ka-52 attack helicopter shot down in the Robotyne area:

A view of Tokmak, as from an Ukrainian UAV, around 15 August:

Considering the situation, I’ll exploit the opportunity to ‘take a few days off’, too: I’m in need of some rest. Therefore, and unless something important happens, the next update is to follow sometimes the next week.