25 May: Ukrainians NULLIFY BRAND NEW RUSSIAN ENCIRCLEMENT OPERATION | War in Ukraine Explained

25 May: Ukrainians NULLIFY BRAND NEW RUSSIAN ENCIRCLEMENT OPERATION | War in Ukraine Explained

today there are a lot of updates from the harv direction the most interesting developments come from the vunk area here Russian forces conducted strikes on bridges over the cerski donet and V rivers in hopes of improving their chance of degrading Ukrainian ground lines of communication and quickly seizing vens the most critical Russian strike targeted the serson Dam bridge near St salivia for this operation Russians used a 38 air to surface missile with a 250 kg high explosive Warhead a 38 has a 40 km range while the bridge is only 25 km from the Russian border making it very vulnerable Ukrainian air defenses had no time to react to the missile launch because it was launched too close to the Target leaving no time for interception the footage of the strike on the bridge was recorded by an Orland 30 reconnaissance drone which was likely assigned to report on the success of the strike and correct the strike if needed this bridge is the most crucial supply line connecting the group of forces in karv with other ukrainians defending both vens and Kens if we look at Road Links and the Region’s geography we can see that this section of the sers donet river is 50 km long and had only four River Crossings with the bridge near rubish being destroyed during the first car offensive and with the bridge near bhatka being too close to the front line to be used for ation of substantial forces ukrainians were left only with the bridge on the pachin High Dam as the only remaining Ukrainian ground line of communication to fans and kopans such developments led to a considerable increase of the supply shoulder as the route through St Sal was only 78 km long while the route through peni is 120 km long increasing the time needed for relocation almost by two times the key idea behind destroying all the bridg north of the pachen dam was to quickly isolate the battlefield east of the river by preventing Ukrainian forces in kariv from supporting Ukrainian forces defending against ongoing Russian attacks near vens the rapid degradation of Ukrainian ground lines of communication was meant to facilitate a rapid seizure of vens while inflicting minimal damage to the town the Russian military command likely chose the seizure of of Chens as one of the key tactical objectives of the first phase of the offensive operation in Northern Kar oblast since vens is the largest settlement immediately on the border that would provide Russian forces a staging ground close to the Russian rear to prepare for and launch the second phase of the Russian offensive operation in order to preserve the town for later use Russian forces attempted to take it by conducting an encirclement operation instead of a head on assault in order to set conditions for the encirclement operation Russian forces tried to isolate the battlefield even more by destroying another bridge near Tikka the destruction of this bridge prevented Ukrainian forces from maneuvering along the border and crushing the flanks of the advancing Russian forces east of fans at first glance the bridges destruction seems like a self-sabotage for further Russian efforts but Russian armored vehicles including bmps and btrs are amphibious and can be used for assaults across the narrow vcha River such Russian armored assaults do not guarantee success but would improve over current pure infantry assaults across the river the main objective of the encircling forces was to establish control over the small Forest east of the southern part of the Town geolocated footage showed repeated artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions there as part of artillery preparation ahead of the storming operation unfortunately for Russians the Russian assaults near Tikka brought no results since assault groups must move for up to 5 kmet from the border across Open Fields to reach the village because of this exposure many pieces of Russian equipment were hunted and destroyed by Ukrainian fpv drone strikes so far Ukrainian fpv drone operators managed to destroy two bmp2 infantry fighting Vehicles destroy a tank and two Supply vehicles and damage two more tanks however the main reason why the Russian encirclement operation failed was the fact that they effectively failed to isolate the Battleground and Ukrainian forces forces managed to increase the number of troops defensing V Chans in time moreover Russian forces currently deployed in V Chans are insufficient for prolonged offensive operations at this moment Russians have deployed 8,000 troops at most in the whole K Direction meaning that they have 5,000 troops at most in the wans area the fact that this offensive group is limited in numbers makes it sensitive to high losses requiring more frequent troop rotations that inevitably delay their attacks overall despite a rapid concerted effort to isolate Ukrainian forces in V Chens to conduct a quick encirclement operation on the underst strength Ukrainian forces the Russian encirclement operation failed Russian forces not only underestimated the reaction speed of the Ukrainian command to these developments but also did not take into account the openness of the area in front of vens which led to the destruction of significant portions of Russian assault units before they even got to outflank Ukrainian forces resulting in huge losses to drone strikes The Limited number of Russian troops involved Chans combined with their susceptibility to high losses and the need for frequent rotations significantly hampers their ability to sustain prolonged offensive operations if you’re against the invasion of Ukraine and you want to support the work that I am doing consider making a purchase in the online store you a supporter here you can find a lot of produ products with Ukrainian symbols to not only show your support for this channel but also for Ukraine the link to the online store is in the description thank you for watching this report and I will see you in the next one

🔴 Support via Online Store: https://uasupporter.com/collections/solidarity
🔵 EXCLUSIVE Strategic Updates on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ReportingFromUkraine
🔵 EXCLUSIVE Strategic Updates on YouTube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/ReportingFromUkraine/join
🟠 Support via Thanks button donation under the video (next to “like” and “share”)
🟠 Support via 1-time donation: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ReportingFromUA
⚫ Uncensored combat videos on Telegram: https://t.me/RFUEnglish or @RFUEnglish
⚫ Follow us on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/RFUEnglish or @RFUEnglish

I am Ukrainian. My country has been invaded by Russia. In this video, I will tell you what happened on the 822 day of the war.

Day 822: May 25

Today, there are a lot of updates from the Kharkiv direction.

The most interesting developments come from the Vovchansk area. Here, Russian forces conducted strikes on bridges over the Siversky-Donets and Vovcha rivers in hopes of improving their chance of degrading Ukrainian ground lines of communication and quickly seizing Vovchansk.

The most critical Russian strike targeted the Siversky-Donets Dam bridge near Stary Saltiv. For this operation, Russians used a Kh-Thirty-Eight air-to-surface missile with a two-hundred-and-fifty-kilogram high-explosive warhead. Kh-Thirty-Eight has a forty-kilometer range, while the bridge is only twenty-five kilometers from the Russian border, making it very vulnerable. Ukrainian air defenses had no time to react to the missile launch because it was launched too close to the target, leaving no time for interception. The footage of the strike on the bridge was recorded by an Orlan-Thirty reconnaissance drone, which was likely assigned to report on the success of the strike and correct the strike if needed.

This bridge is the most crucial supply line connecting the group of forces in Kharkiv with other Ukrainians defending both Vovchansk and Kupiansk. If we look at road links and the region’s geography, we can see that this section of the Siversky-Donets River is fifty kilometers long and had only four river crossings.

With the bridge near Rubizhne being destroyed during the first Kharkiv offensive, and with the bridge near Buhrovatka being too close to the frontline to be used for relocation of substantial forces, Ukrainians were left only with the bridge on the Pechenihy dam as the only remaining Ukrainian ground line of communication to Vovchansk and Kupiansk.

Such developments led to a considerable increase of the supply shoulder, as the route through Stary Saltiv was only seventy-eight kilometers long, while the route through Pechenihy is one hundred and twenty kilometers long, increasing the time needed for relocation almost by two times.

The key idea behind destroying all the bridges north of the Pechenihy dam was to quickly isolate the battlefield east of the river by preventing Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv from supporting Ukrainian forces defending against ongoing Russian attacks near Vovchansk. The rapid degradation of Ukrainian ground lines of communication was meant to facilitate a rapid seizure of Vovchansk, while inflicting minimal damage to the town.

The Russian military command likely chose the seizure of Vovchansk as one of the key tactical objectives of the first phase of the offensive operation in northern Kharkiv Oblast, since Vovchansk is the largest settlement immediately on the border that would provide Russian forces a staging ground close to the Russian rear to prepare for and launch the second phase of the Russian offensive operation.

In order to preserve the town for later use, Russian forces attempted to take it by conducting an encirclement operation instead of a head-on assault. In order to set conditions for the encirclement operation, Russian forces tried to isolate the battlefield even more by destroying another bridge near Tykhe. The destruction of this bridge prevented Ukrainian forces from maneuvering along the border and crushing the flanks of the advancing Russian forces east of Vovchansk.

At first glance, the bridge’s destruction seems like a self-sabotage for further Russian efforts, but Russian armored vehicles, including BMPs and BTRs, are amphibious and can be used for assaults across the narrow Vovcha River. Such Russian armored assaults do not guarantee success but would improve over current pure infantry assaults across the river.

The main objective of the encircling forces was to establish control over the small forest east of the southern part of the town. Geolocated footage showed repeated artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions there as part of artillery preparation ahead of the storming operation.

Unfortunately for Russians, the Russian assaults near Tikhe brought no results since assault groups must move for up to five kilometers from the border across open fields to reach the village. Because of this exposure, many pieces of Russian equipment were hunted and destroyed by Ukrainian…