Donbass offensive, infrastructure strikes and drone warfare: The week in the Russia-Ukraine conflict

The past week in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev has been marked by massive attacks on the Ukrainian critical infrastructure, while the Russian military has made new gains in both southwest of Russia’s Donetsk (DPR) and northwest of Lugansk (LPR) People’s Republics. 

The hostilities have also continued in Russia’s Kursk Region, where the country’s military continued its effort to dislodge the Ukrainian invasion force from the border town of Sudzha and its surroundings. Neither of the sides reported making any major gains over the week, with an oncoming battle continuing in the area.

Donbass push continues 

The Russian military has reported making new gains in the DPR, continuing their advance to the south of the city of Pokrovsk (also known as Krasnoarmeysk). The city is the most populous settlement remaining under  Ukrainian control in the southwest of the republic.

This week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the liberation of Vozrozhdeniye (also known as Novy Trud), a small village located some 5km to the south of Pokrovsk. Russian troops have been also reportedly putting pressure on Pokrovsk itself, with multiple new videos showing Russian kamikaze drones operating inside the city. 

One of the videos purportedly taken in Pokrovsk by a Russian fiber optics wired drone shows the kamikaze UAV approaching a damaged Ukrainian supply truck. The vehicle turns out to be parked by a handful of garbage tanks, with a local woman seen approaching them to take out her trash. The drone’s operator waits for the woman to leave the site before diving into the truck, footage shows. 

The Russian military has also continued to tighten its grip on Kurakhovo, a heavily fortified town stretching along the southern bank of the eponymous reservoir and located some 30 km to the south of Pokrovsk. This week, the Russian military said it has seized the village of Solntsevka (Krasnoye), expanding its zone on the northern bank of the reservoir.

In the south, Moscow’s forces seized the village of Gigant, further reinforcing its positions in the string of settlements located along the river of Sukhiye Yaly. The Russian military has been reportedly pushing further to the north in the area in an apparent effort to sever the last major road heading westwards from Kurakhovo. The town itself has partially fallen under Russia’s control already, with intensive fighting continuing inside.

New gains have been also reported by the Russian Defense Ministry from the so-called Vremevka Ledge, a string of villages in the west of the DPR. The area saw active hostilities during the ultimately botched Ukrainian counteroffensive last year, with several settlements in the area captured by Kiev at the time.

This week, the Russian military liberated the village of Storozhevoye, as well as reportedly reached the last major road leading to Vremevka from the west. Last week, another supply route approaching the ledge from the north was severed after Moscow’s forces captured the village of Novy Komar, located shortly to the north from the area. 

Apart from that, Moscow’s forces also reported making new gains near the town of Kupyansk, located in Ukraine’s Kharkov region near the border with Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR). Kupyansk fell under Russian control early into the conflict yet got recaptured by Kiev in late 2022. This week, Moscow’s troops captured the villages of Zagryzovo and Lozovaya, located shortly to the southeast from Kupyansk across the Oskol river.

Long-range strikes continue 

Over the past week, the Russian military continued its long-range strikes campaign, targeting Ukraine’s dual-use infrastructure, power plants and logistics. 

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday it has conducted a “massive strike with long-range precision weapons and attack drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine,”supplying the country’s military-industrial complex. The military did not elaborate on weaponry used in the strike or exact targets, stating only all of them have been successfully hit.

Media reports and unverified footage circulating online indicated that the city of Dnepr (also known as Dnepropetrovsk) was among the prime targets of the attack. Footage circulating online suggested Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles were used against a local thermal power plant sustaining. The Ukrainian military unsuccessfully attempted to shoot down the incoming missile with anti-aircraft guns, footage suggests. 

At least 12 hits were reported from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov, with apparently faster ballistic missiles, likely fired by Iskander systems, used in the attack. One of the videos circulating online shows a massive fire at a location affected by the strikes. Footage captured the moment when the site was hit by another projectile with a massive explosion visible. 

One of the few still functional thermal power plants in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Russia’s Donbass, the Slavyanskaya TPP, was apparently targeted in the attack as well. Footage circulating online shows a massive plume of black smoke emitting from the site that sustained at least one hit. 

The Russian military has also continued its concentrated effort to disrupt the Ukrainian logistics in the immediate rear of Kiev’s military. This week, a road bridge across the river of Volchya, located shortly to the west of Khurakhovo got obliterated by a Russian airstrike.

The bridge was targeted with multiple aerial bombs, apparently fitted with a Universal Correction and Guidance Module (UMPK) winged upgrade kit. The munitions flattened the whole structure, with the bridge’s bed and its supports ending up destroyed.

Drone warfare 

The past week has seen the continuing active use of assorted drones, ranging from various home-made kamikaze UAVs to larger loitering munitions, such as Russian Lancet-family drones.

The latter drones have been playing an increasingly important role during the conflict, serving as one of the key medium-range tools in Russia’s arsenal. The Lancet-family loitering munitions have been used to hunt down Ukrainian high value assets, such as anti-aircraft or long-range ground attack missile systems, radars, artillery pieces and so on.

A new video that emerged this week shows a rather rare instance of drones of different classes used against the same target. Footage circulating online purports to show a German-made Ukrainian Leopard 2A4 tank maneuvering in a small village near Pokrovsk. The tank, generously uparmored with Soviet-era Kontakt-1 reactive armoire gets hit by at least two FPV drones and finished off by a Lancet, catching fire to its amoo stock, the video shows. 

Another fresh video, said to have been taken in Russia’s Kursk Region, shows the destruction of a US-supplied M1126 Stryker armored personnel carrier (APC). The vehicle gets pelted with multiple ‘conventional’ radio-controlled FPV drones, ending up engulfed in flames. Some of its occupants managed to bail the APC and take shelter in an adjacent badly-damaged building only to get hit by another drone, footage shows. 

The use of fiber optics wired drones has continued to expand, with multiple new videos emerging from the Pokrovsk area. The drones of the type were deployed en masse by the Russian forces back in August during the Ukrainian attack on Kursk Region with their use spreading elsewhere since then. 

One of the videos shows a cable-controlled UAV traveling along a road with a US-made HMMWV armored car, adorned with multiple drone jammers, seen speeding towards it. The diver notices the drone and attempts to drive away in reverse only to get hit straight into the windshield. The vehicle got badly damaged and burned down, footage captured by another fiber optics drone shows. 

Fiber optics drones are immune to any means of electronic warfare and jamming, as well as safe from any sort of interference and signal blackouts, unlike their radio-controlled counterparts. At the same time, such drones are slower and less agile, as they carry a massive roll of wire alongside their payload, which also makes them bulkier and easier to spot.