Over 10 different brigades deployed near Novoprokopivka. Ukrainian army is serious about breaking through front. Column by Sergiy Zgurets

Situation at the frontline

Currently, the main focus is on the southern front, where Ukrainian counter-offensive has been going on since June 4. For the past 4 months, newly formed brigades and experienced brigades have been fighting their way through the Russian defenses, particularly in the Tokmak sector. And right now, crucial tactical operations are taking place around Novoprokopivka and Verbove.

Russian enemy has deployed a fairly large grouping. If we take the distance from Kopany to Novofedorivka, there are about 20 enemy units of the brigade or regiment level. Ukrainian advance is taking place in extremely difficult conditions, with overcoming minefields and destroying enemy manpower and equipment in these conditions. Since the losses in the Russian Federation are very high, they are looking for new resources to transfer to this particular section of the front.

Novoprokopivka and Verbove

Oleksandr Solonkov, a military reconnaissance engineer, shared that every day the relevant work continues, and it has been going on for quite some time. 

"The Russian forces have realized that this is the main foothold. This is the area where they have to throw a lot of additional forces. Russian fores are trying to prevent further advancement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, trying to recapture lost positions. They are currently grinding the Russian reserves," Solonkov said.

He gave a detailed description of one of the fortifications between Novoprokopivka and Robotyne and explained how the defense lines were built. 

"It is very difficult to defend when everything is in the open, so we build overlaps that help to hide the number of personnel and partially hide the advance. There are pictures of fortifications that are located further in depth, where it is possible to conduct a circular defense. The further you advance, the more likely you are to find some more heavily built and fortified strongholds. This is quite typical, there are plenty of such fortified points," the military said.

Production of systems to counter Russian drones

The enemy is trying to actively use FPV drones, and they need active countermeasures. The Ukrainian company Infozahyst was chosen to carry out the research and development work.

Yaroslav Kalinin, the company's director, said that certain combat results were postponed from September to around October 20.

"We are talking about three big steps. First, the use of a system manufactured by a German company on a manned helicopter platform, which was in 2019. This winter, we used a system of our own design, which showed that we are moving in the right direction. Now we are moving to the point where this system will be launched on an unmanned basis. In other words, these are three big gradual steps that bring us closer to getting a combat prototype that will significantly change the range of tasks for electronic intelligence," Kalinin concluded.