According to the General Staff of Ukraine, 64 combat clashes between the Ukrainian army and the Russian occupation troops have taken place since the beginning of the day.
What is known about the situation at the front
The enemy continues offensive actions. The greatest activity is observed in the Pokrovsk and Kupyansk directions. The units of the Defence Forces are courageously holding back the onslaught of the occupiers and harshly responding to their attempts to advance, the General Staff emphasises.
It is noted that the Russian occupiers carried out 4 attacks in the Kharkiv region. Fighting is currently ongoing in the area of Lyptsi and Starytsa, where the criminal army of Russia dropped 7 anti-aircraft bombs on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and populated areas.
In the Kupyansk region, the enemy attacked the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 12 times near the settlements of Synkivka, Novoselivka, Myasozharivka, Druzhelyubivka, and Tverdokhlibove.
7 enemy units were repulsed in the direction of Lyman. The battle continues in the Torske district.
In the direction of Kramatorsk, the enemy attacked 5 times with the support of aviation. 4 attacks were repelled by the Ukrainian military. The reflection of another one is underway.
The largest number of attacks by Russian occupiers since the beginning of the day was recorded in the Pokrovsk region. The Ukrainian military has already repelled 15 enemy attacks in this direction.
In addition, the Ukrainian military repelled 2 unsuccessful attacks by the Russian army near Staromayorske and Rozdolne.
Attacks in the direction of Orikhove in the Zaporizhzhia region and near Krynky on the left bank of the Kherson region were repulsed.
What Western analysts say
According to retired US Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton in a comment to LIGA.net journalists, by the end of the year the situation at the front may reach a stalemate, which will be overcome only in 2025.
Leighton suggested that until Ukraine receives a significant portion of military aid from Western partners, a situation similar to the one in Avdiivka and Vovchansk may be repeated in other areas.
Ukraine is working hard to resist Russia. It's all a matter of time. If help from the West arrives soon, Ukrainian forces recruit and train the necessary number of soldiers, then the country will be able to stop most, if not all, Russian advances. In fact, we will see a stalemate on the front line by the end of the year. It is possible to leave it in 2025, if the conditions are in favor of Ukraine, stressed the retired colonel of the US Army.
According to him, the strengths of the Ukrainian military remain the ability to innovate, asymmetric methods of conducting combat operations, significant capabilities of tactical intelligence.
The weakness is that the Western aid you are counting on is too slow to reach the front. Ukraine must break out of the war of attrition. Its delay means that you are fighting on Russia's terms. It is Ukraine that must determine the terms of this war. We need to be agile again, as in 2022, in the battles for Kyiv and Kherson, explains Cedric Leighton.
He noted that the Ukrainian military can speed up the conduct of its own combat operations, improve the tactical skills of commanders, and return at least part of the territories captured by the occupation army of the Russian Federation.
