Victory Chronicles-DAY 735

Russian warplanes targeted the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv Oblast, resulting in the deaths of two local residents, including a priest, and injuring a woman. 

The attack caused significant damage to the central part of the city, and there is a possibility of more casualties as efforts to clear the rubble continue. Various residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were affected, including a local cafe and a church, which were completely destroyed.

Emergency response services are currently working in the area to assess the situation. The head of the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration, Oleh Syniehubov, reported the incident. Authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the attack under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The police are currently documenting the aftermath of the shelling, with more than 20 destructions identified at this time.

The Ukrainian military successfully shot down all 10 drones launched by Russia overnight. These drones, called Shahid, were targeted by firing groups from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and anti-aircraft missile units from the Air Force of Ukraine. The Russian Shahid drones were launched from the occupied part of Donetsk and Russia’s Primorsko-Akhtarsk area. The UAVs were destroyed over the Odesa and Mykolaiv Oblasts during an anti-aircraft operation. However, after the drones were downed, a fire broke out in Odesa due to the wreckage falling. Fortunately, the fire was quickly extinguished. 

Two policemen were killed, and four others were wounded in an attack in the Sumy Oblast when Russian forces targeted law enforcement officers with artillery. The officers were part of an investigative team documenting the aftermath of an attack on a farm building. Rescuers recovered the bodies of the two deceased policemen from the rubble. The injured investigators are receiving medical assistance. 

Over the past few days, aerial reconnaissance aircraft of the 11th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine have carried out 53 fire attacks on the enemy and its positions in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia directions, reported the National Guard. The video shows some fragments of this effective work.

Russian forces are attempting to exploit tactical opportunities offered by the Russian seizure of Avdiivka and appear to be maintaining a relatively high tempo of offensive operations aimed at pushing as far as possible in the Avdiivka area before Ukrainian forces establish more cohesive and harder-to-penetrate defensive lines in the area. Russian forces temporarily decreased their tempo of operations as they cleared Avdiivka following the Russian seizure of the settlement on February 17, but have since resumed a relatively high tempo of assaults further west and northwest of Avdiivka.

Ukrainian Tavriisk Group of Forces Spokesperson Dmytro Lykhovyi stated on February 27 that Russian forces have recently increased the size of their assault groups in the Tavriisk direction (Avdiivka through western Zaporizhia Oblast) from small squad-sized groups to platoon-sized and even company-sized groups. Russian forces are currently focusing assaults west of Avdiivka in the direction of Berdychi, Orlivka, and Tonenke, where Ukrainian forces established immediate defensive positions to cover their withdrawal from Avdiivka and to receive oncoming Russian offensive operations. Lykhovyi and Ukrainian Tavriisk Group of Forces Commander Oleksandr Tarnavskyi stated that Ukrainian forces have stabilized their defensive lines along the Tonenke-Orlivka-Berdychi line as of February 27.

Ukrainian military observers characterized Ukrainian fortifications west of Avdiivka as “disappointing” and ”problematic,” however. Russian milbloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold defensive positions immediately west of Avdiivka and forecasted that Ukrainian forces will concentrate on a defensive line further west that Ukrainian forces began constructing in November 2023.

Russian forces are likely continuing attempts to advance in order to deprive Ukrainian forces of the respite that would allow Ukraine to establish a more cohesive and harder-to-penetrate defensive line in the immediate vicinity of Avdiivka. The seizure of Avdiivka has allowed Russian forces to press on positions that Ukrainian forces have manned for a shorter period than Ukrainian positions in Avdiivka or further west, and Russian forces are likely sustaining a high operational tempo to try to exploit this tactical opportunity. Russian forces may be able to seize settlements immediately west and northwest of Avdiivka in the coming weeks, but terrain and water features further west of Avdiivka, particularly the body of water that runs between Berdychi-Semenivka-Orlivka, will likely slow the already relatively slow rate of Russian advances in the area. This difficult terrain will likely constrain further Russian tactical gains and allow Ukrainian forces to establish prepared defensive positions that will likely prompt the eventual culmination of the current Russian offensive effort in the area at least until or unless the Russians reinforce their attacking elements.

Senior fighter Andrii Povroznyk, with the call sign Khokhol, died on August 2, 2023, near the village of Vilshany, Kharkiv Oblast. While performing a combat mission, he sustained a fatal explosive injury. The defender was 28 years old.

Andrii was a native of the village of Vyshi Lubianky, Ternopil Oblast. He graduated from Ternopil Vocational College with advanced military and physical training. He worked at Kremenchanka LLC. He was married and dreamed of a family. During the war, the couple had a daughter, for whom the man fought. He wanted his family never to know the horrors of war.

During the full-scale invasion, Andrii joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine to defend his family and homeland. He became a fighter of the 14th separate mechanized brigade named after Prince Roman the Great.

“My husband was the best. No matter what, he stood up to defend Ukraine. He defended us in the Kupiansk sector. He will forever remain in our hearts and our memory as a cheerful, kind and good man,” said Iryna Povroznyk.

The fighter was buried in the village of Novyi Rohivets, Ternopil Oblast. Andrii is survived by his mother, sisters, wife and daughter born in 2023.

*Andrii’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

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