Russian Army Fails Offensive Near Svatove

RosSMI told what happened.

The Russian army has failed to keep under its control the positions it has occupied in the Luhansk region for the past 10 days (three villages were occupied here), writes Dialog.

Since July 25, the AFU have regained control over more than 20 square kilometres in the area, according to the DeepState project. From 20 to 25 July, Russian forces managed to advance near Svatove, crossing the Zherebets River, taking control of three villages in the Luhansk region (Novoehorivka, Nadiya and Serhiivka) and reaching the border of the Kharkiv region.

According to the DeepState map, Russian forces have taken control of about 60 square kilometres. Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the AFU's eastern group, denied the capture of the three villages in comments to CNN, saying that the front line had not changed tactically.

On Sunday, the DeepState project reported that near Svatove there had been "stabilisation of the front with the consequent displacement of the enemy to the initial positions". According to the project's map, the AFU regained control of about 10 square kilometres from 25 to 29 July, and another 10 square kilometres over the weekend. This area includes the village of Nadiya and part of Novoehorivka.

At the same time, Russian military blogger War Ganzo reported that the AFU had managed to 'stabilise the front line' in the area in recent days.

Rybar, a channel close to the Ministry of Defence, wrote on the morning of 31 July that it expected an AFU counterattack near Novoehorivka, where large forces were concentrated.

"Judging by the movements, the Ukrainian command intends not only to repulse the lost positions, but also to move further towards Karmazinovka and Raihorodok. And if they succeed, to break through to Svatove. This was in the AFU's plans as early as last autumn," the blogger suggested.

In other parts of the front, according to DeepState, there were no significant changes over the weekend. The authors of the project note that there is heavy fighting for the village of Kleshchiivka in the direction of Bakhmut and in the Rabotino area on the Zaporizhzhia line.

Ukraine's deputy defence minister, Anna Malyar, said on Monday that the AFU had regained control of 12.6 square kilometres during the week, bringing the total since the start of the counteroffensive to almost 205 square kilometres. She recalled that last week they managed to take the village of Staromayorske. On Saturday, Cherevaty said that the build-up of Russian forces on the Svatove-Kreminna line was part of preparations for a major offensive operation in the direction of Kupyansk, which he said the Russian Armed Forces were planning to launch this summer.

The Institute for the Study of War had not observed any visual evidence of a major offensive as of 31 July.