Victory Chronicles
-DAY 519

The main thrust of Ukraine’s nearly two-month-old counteroffensive is now underway in the country’s southeast, two Pentagon officials said on Wednesday, with thousands of reinforcements pouring into the grinding battle, many of them trained and equipped by the West and, until now, held in reserve.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the campaign. Their comments dovetailed with reports from the battlefield on Wednesday, where artillery battles flared along the southern front line in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Meanwhile, Mykola Urshalovych, deputy director of the deployment planning department of the National Guard’s Main Directorate, told TSN that the National Guard made progress during the offensive in the Melitopol sector. Ukrainian defenders are consolidating their positions. According to Urshalovych, the National Guard “had tactical successes, are consolidating their positions and conducting reconnaissance on the areas of further action.”

• Biden orders to send evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine to The Hague court – The New York Times
• British defense minister insists Ukraine’s counter-offensive is not failing – Telegraph
• UK intelligence announces reinforcement of Russian troops in southern Ukraine with upgraded attack helicopters – Ministry of Defense
• US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine commits more forces to counteroffensive – CNN
• Ukraine’s forces continue to advance near Staromaiorske and conduct offensive actions in Bakhmut – Military Media Center

Ukraine’s air defense forces shot down 36 cruise missiles fired from the territory of the Russian Federation on Ukraine in the afternoon of 26 July. “Today, Ukraine’s air defense destroyed 36 aerial targets… It was a difficult day, but thanks to the coordinated actions of all the defenders of the sky, we repelled this attack!” said Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Oleshchuk reported that Ukrainian forces shot down three Kalibr cruise missiles and 33 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine released a photo report from the sapper training. “Fighters of the territorial defense units in the Zaporizhzhia sector are improving their sapper skills, as this knowledge saves lives and health of the fighters. And a sapper’s life is worth its weight in gold for the unit, as the sapper’s work is painstaking, long, and critical.  These people have an explosive sense of humor and measure weight in TNT equivalent. A sapper has no right to make a mistake; he understands that his life – his own, his comrades’, and his unit’s – depends on his skills. With the victory, the war for sappers will not end; the work will only increase.  Because a year of war means 10 years of demining”, report of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In the Donetsk Oblast, aerial reconnaissance of the 88th Separate Marine Battalion successfully destroyed an enemy BMD-3M with ammunition using an FPV drone. This combat vehicle is not subject to evacuation and recovery, reported the official Telegram channel of the Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Western officials are unhelpfully raising expectations for rapid and dramatic Ukrainian advances that Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to meet, as well as offering forecasts of the likely Ukrainian avenues of advance that should probably not have been shared publicly. ISW continues to assess that Ukrainian forces can make significant gains in their counteroffensive operations, but that such gains are likely to occur over a long period of time and interspersed with lulls and periods of slower and more grinding efforts as the Ukrainians come to successive Russian defensive lines and themselves require relief and rotation.

26-year-old Captain Oleksandr Tymchenko, with the call sign Phobos, was killed near the village of Verkhnokamianske in Donetsk Oblast. While performing a combat mission, the officer was fatally wounded due to enemy artillery shelling of Ukrainian fighters’ positions.  

Oleksandr was born in the village of Kryzhopil, Vinnytsia Oblast. In 2011-2013, he studied at the Kamianets-Podilskyi Lyceum of Military and Physical Training. In 2017 he graduated from the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy in Lviv. He constantly improved his knowledge of military affairs.

In 2017, the young officer began military service in the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade, named after Hetman Ivan Mazepa. He served in a self-propelled artillery division. At first, he was a battery commander and later became the commander of a rocket artillery battery of a rocket artillery division. He took part in the ATO/JFO in Donbas. From January 31, 2022, he served as the deputy commander for artillery of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion.

“He is our only child, our universe, our Hero, our pride! Always smiling and positive, he never complained that it was hard for him. He had one answer for everyone: “Everything will be fine. We will not give up without a fight”. It is incredibly hard… The most precious son in the whole world! He had many plans for the future. The pain… incredible pain, which is getting heavier every day,” said Lyudmyla, the officer’s mother.

“Oleksandr was a true patriot of Ukraine, an unbreakable Warrior of Light who defended the freedom and independence of our Motherland, a Ukrainian artilleryman; they are called ‘Gods of War.’ And he proved it – at the front, riding an enemy tank. At the age of 26, Phobos was a role model for his subordinates; he was loved and respected, a loyal friend, and one of those unbreakable and desperate warriors on whom our nation rests. A young son was left without a father, parents without their only son, and our brigade orphaned without a commander,” wrote brothers and sisters from the 54th Brigade.

Posthumously, the Hero was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, III degree. Oleksandr was buried in his native village. He is survived by his parents, wife, and son.