Frontline report: Russians lose 1,030 troops, 75 tanks and armored vehicles in one day

Day 597: 13 October 2023

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

Here, Russian forces continued offensive operations intending to take Avdiivka into a pocket.

When it comes to the northern part of the region, Russian territorial gains turned out to be much smaller than Russian sources initially claimed, and so far, it seems like Russian forces have not crossed the rails. If we look closer, we can see that based on the recently released geolocated footage, the fighting is still taking place in the field between Krasnohorivka and the main Ukrainian fortification.

Russian sources published a video showing how multiple Russian tanks are operating near Krasnohorivka and are trying to undermine the first line of defense by unleashing high-explosive shells on Ukrainian fortifications prior to deploying infantry.

The first video published by Ukrainians shows how one such tank with infantry was shot just 50 meters in front of the Ukrainian trenches, but the Russians still decided to flee. The second video shows the destruction of the Russian armored personnel carrier just 200 m north of the tank in the previous video. The freshest video from the region only shows how a couple of armored vehicles deploy the infantry, they immediately get hit, and the damaged vehicles drive away, leaving the wounded infantry in the grass.

So, the fighting is still taking place in front of the rails, and as fighters from 110 Mechanized Brigade reported, Russians did not capture any fortifications, implying that this position is still under Ukrainian control.

When it comes to the attack on Terrikon, recently released geolocated footage shows dozens of pieces of burning Russian equipment in front of it. Moreover, today, Russian media started gradually backtracking their claims of control of the Terrikon (a coal mine’s spoil tip, – Ed.) and reported that Ukrainians conducted a counterattack, pushed Russians out of it, and that, for now, the area is in the grey zone.

But Ukrainian sources reported that there were no counterattacks because the Terrikon was never taken. So, the Russian offensive effort north of Avdiivka did not bring any significant results.

Part of the reason why the Russian offensive here failed is that a Ukrainian sabotage group somehow got inside the Russian-controlled territories and blew up the bridge that Russians used to transfer reinforcements.

The explosion also damaged two trucks, one tank, one howitzer, and one armored personnel carrier.

And Russian analysts already claimed that the pace of Russian advance had slowed down because Russians started focusing on “quality” attacks after Russian forces endured initial high equipment losses, so the additional destruction of the crucial supply line threatens to undermine the Russian offensive in this area completely. In order to prevent Ukrainians from exploiting the decreased intensity of attacks, Russians started using incendiary munitions to keep Ukrainians inside the shelters.

In the meantime, Ukrainians are amplifying the damage and preventing Russian reinforcement from getting to the front by striking the rear positions. In one such attack, Ukrainians destroyed one armored personnel carrier, one truck, and up to 30 troops.

When it comes to the southern part of the region, the situation is relatively the same – after Russians captured the first tree line in front of Vodiane during the first day of the offensive operation, Russians struggled to develop their offensive further. Over the last 3 days, Ukrainian fighters from 53 Mechanized Brigade have released countless videos of Russian attempts to cross the fields, all of which ended up with the complete destruction of the Russian assault units.

The ground here is even less favorable for Russians because they essentially have to cross 8 km in the open fields in the lowlands before they can even attempt to storm the next tree line. That is why around 40% of videos of the destruction of the Russian assault units come from Vodiane, and 20 more percent come from Pisky.

Overall, Ukrainians showed that they were prepared to face a massive and unexpected Russian offensive operation. At this time, it is clear the Russians have completely lost momentum and do not know how to overcome the Ukrainian resistance. In the meantime, according to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian losses once again surpassed 1,000 soldiers, 25 tanks, and 50 armored fighting vehicles per day, which is the highest in a very long time.

In our daily frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

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