AFU Crash Russian Defence In North Of Kherson Region, Developing Offensive In Luhansk Region

US analysts have described the Ukrainian army's breakthrough in two sections of the front.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to make significant progress in Kherson Region, at the same time continuing their offensive in Kharkiv and Luhansk regions.

The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports this in its new report on October 4.

In Kherson region, Ukrainian forces have liberated several settlements on the eastern bank of the Ingulets River along the T2207 highway, forcing Russian troops to retreat south towards Kherson. Ukrainian forces also continue to advance south along the Dnieper River and the T0403 highway, cutting two Russian land lines of communication (GLOK) in the north of Kherson region and pushing the Russians south of the border of Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions to Beryslav. At the same time, the AFU is making efforts to thwart Russian attempts to move additional ammunition, reserves, mobilized troops and protective equipment to forward positions.

The consolidation of the AFU positions on the eastern (left) bank of the Ingulets river and on the right bank of the Kakhovka reservoir will allow Ukrainian forces to push Russian troops significantly eastwards towards the Dnieper and push them southwards towards Kherson and the Beryslav-Nova Kakhkova sector, ISW writes, summing up fears of Russian military bloggers.

The institute's analysts also analyze the data of one such "war correspondent," according to whom the defence of a 20-kilometre front line requires 500 men with a ratio of about 20 metres per man, but due to the understaffing of Russian battalions in the north of Kherson Region, this ratio is one soldier per 60 metres of the front line. This fact, along with effective Ukrainian offensives, "partly explains the rapid rate of collapse of the Russian army in this area," the Institute's experts note.

In Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, the AFU continues its offensive east of the Oskil River, with fighting continuing near the R66 Svatove-Kremenna highway (both of these towns are already in Luhansk Region), as reported by Russian sources. Ukrainian forces have entered Boguslavka and Borova Ondriivka (30km west of Svatove). "These successes, along with other AFU offensives on the eastern bank of the Oskil River, have basically deprived Russian forces of the opportunity to use the river as a defensive line," ISW writes, noting that the Kharkiv front has now actually become the Lugansk one (which even Russian "military" propagandists acknowledge).