The Ukrainian military liberated Kherson city in a day, meeting virtually no resistance from the remaining Russian forces, despite the estimations that the battle will take days, if not weeks.
Following the liberation of the right bank of the Kherson region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine keep the other bank under fire control. All railways and roads leading both from Crimea and Zaporizhzhia are under either artillery or HIMARS fire.
Therefore, Russian troops are relocating artillery and military equipment 15-30 km deep in the region, away from the Dnipro River. The experts say this is the reason Kherson has not been shelled following its liberation, as has been expected before.
Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have new targets. They are shelling Russian manpower clusters near the Dnipro river, particularly, near Oleshky, Nova Kakhovka, Hornostaivka and Hola Prystan settlements. Also, since their range has increased, they now can reach more targets, such as the airfield in Chaplynka, Kherson region, where Russian troops have stationed their base.
The withdrawal of the major part of Russian forces from the Dnipro River provides advantageous conditions for Ukrainian paratroopers who have landed near Kinburn Spit and Oleshky and are trying to gain a foothold and establish a base for the left bank attack.
These maneuvers caused some Russian units to retreat from Skadovsk and Henichesk districts. Melitopol is now the main strategic point of the southern frontline since all railway roads lie through this city. However, the city falls within the reach of HIMARS. Therefore, the only ways for Russia to supply its southern front forces are the railway going through the Crimean Bridge, which operates only partly, and road connections linking Mariupol - Berdiansk - Melitopol, which is the only road in that direction not being shelled by the AFU.
Russia is currently deploying the majority of its forces to Melitopol. The battle for this city will be decisive for liberating the entire of southern Ukraine and Crimea.
The distance between Vuhledar and Volnovakha, the city that stands on the main railway connection, amounts to a little more than 25 km. That means the Armed Forces of Ukraine are able to shell this road with all available means. Therefore, Russian troops are directing their efforts at breaking through the corridor to Kurakhove via Vuhledar so they can push AFU back as far away from Russian supply routes as possible. If Russian forces cannot achieve this goal, their withdrawal from the southern frontline will be only a matter of time.
Over the last 2 weeks, Russian troops have been trying to get the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of Pavlivka, a village located 3 km across the river from Vuhledar. After heavy fighting that had left mountains of Russian soldiers’ bodies, AFU were forced to retreat from the completely destroyed Pavlivka.
From the eastern direction, Russian forces are trying to break into Kurakhove via Maryinka, but they have had no success in doing that for the past 8 years. Over the week, the Russian army has had 2 local successes. They managed to advance several kilometers near Opytne and Vodiane on the southern outskirts of Avdiivka. And also got Ukrainian Defense Forces out of the Mayorska rail station, located in northern Horlivka. However, the situation in these directions is controlled and there are no breakthrough threats.
In the Bakhmut direction, Russian troops did not manage to advance at all over the week. The heaviest battles took place near Soledar and Yakovlivka.
Ukrainian Armed Forces are pressuring Russian invaders throughout the entire 80 km of the contact line. The heaviest battles took place over the village of Makiivka. Control over Makiivka has passed from Russian troops to AFU and vice versa several times, however, currently, it is under Ukrainian control and the enemy forces are pushed back 7 km towards the village of Ploshchanka.
Also, the other day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed a Russian unit’s headquarters in the village of Miluvatka, located 7 km south of Svatove.
In the direction near Kreminna, Russian military leadership ceased to control individual units, which retreated from the front to the city without permission. This happened due to the intensive work of Ukrainian artillery and the heavy losses Russian troops suffered.
Meanwhile, Russia has announced the "evacuation" of the civilian population from Kreminna, Rubizhne and Severodonetsk due to the difficult humanitarian situation in these virtually destroyed cities.
On November 15, Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with more than 100 missiles, launching its largest simultaneous missile attack since February 24. Missiles struck critical infrastructure of Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Kryvyi Rih, Kremenchuk district of the Poltava region, Kovel district of Volyn region, Kalynivka district in Vinnytsia region. Khmelnytskyi region and 90% of the Ternopil region were left with no electricity supply.
However, Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense managed to shoot down 73 out of 96 missiles!
The maps were created on the basis of information received from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as other open and verified sources. At the same time, the maps are not as accurate as possible and only conditionally reflect trends in the combat zone.