Victory Chronicles-DAY 782

The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff has reported that Russian forces have been actively attacking at the Novopavlivka and Bakhmut directions. Within the span of a day, the Russians launched 8 missile and 85 air strikes against Ukraine, with 98 instances of fire directed at Ukrainian troops’ positions and populated areas using multiple launch rocket systems. 

Additionally, there were 54 combat engagements at the frontline during this period. The General Staff provided a list of localities hit by air strikes, including regions like Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia. In the Bakhmut sector, Ukrainian troops repelled 10 attacks, while in the Avdiivka and Novopavlivka sectors, Ukrainian forces repelled eight attacks each. The Russians also attempted to break through the Ukrainian troops’ defense in the Novopavlivka sector multiple times. 

Furthermore, Ukrainian forces launched strikes on areas where Russian personnel, weapons, and military equipment were concentrated, hitting five Russian command centers and one ammunition depot with their missile units.

Russian troops heavily shelled Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The head of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said that the region was attacked 400 times. Unfortunately, these attacks resulted in one death and one injury. A woman was killed in a shelling in Vasylivskyi district, and a man was wounded by Russian artillery in Guliaipole.

Over the past day, enemy forces fired 1,934 times at the Donetsk Oblast, using aircraft, S-300, Smerch and artillery. Seven localities, including the towns of Pokrovsk, Selydove and Toretsk, as well as several villages, were damaged as a result of the shelling. The shelling caused significant damage to 63 civilian objects, including 30 residential buildings, three educational institutions and 14 vehicles. One woman was killed, two other civilians were wounded and three five-story buildings were damaged as a result of an air strike on Ocheretyne. In addition, 15 private houses in Kotlyne were damaged by a Grom-E1 missile strike, and several residential buildings and infrastructure facilities in Selidove were destroyed by air strikes and S-300 missile attacks.

Two APCS-82As were destroyed at night by border guards of the “Revenge” offensive guard brigade using a “Vampire” attack drone. This was the end of the enemy’s assault on the border guards’ positions in the Bakhmut direction. The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine published the video with confirmation.

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that the senior Russian military command aims to seize Chasiv Yar, Donetsk Oblast by Russia’s Victory Day holiday on May 9.

The Russian military command’s objective to seize Chasiv Yar in only three and a half weeks indicates that the Russian command likely assesses that Russian forces will be able to seize the town at a faster tempo of offensive operations than efforts to seize Bakhmut in May 2023 or Avdiivka in February 2024. 

The Russian military command likely assesses that continued Ukrainian critical munitions shortages will enable Russian forces to seize Chasiv Yar in several weeks, despite ISW’s assessment that Russian forces have currently only reached the easternmost part of the Kanal Microraion in easternmost Chasiv Yar. The Russian command has routinely set unrealistic goals for Russian advances, however, and a Russian milblogger expressed hope that Russian forces may be able to just enter the Novyi Microraion in southeastern Chasiv Yar by May 9.

The Russian military will likely intend to capitalize on significant Ukrainian artillery and air defense shortages that are crucial to Ukrainian defense and that were not constraining Ukraine’s defense of Bakhmut or Avdiivka to the same degree as their current constraints, however. The Russian military command will likely continue efforts against Chasiv Yar until the effort culminates, but Russian forces may be able to make speedier advances than in prior efforts given the degree of Ukraine’s current artillery and air defense shortages.

Junior Sergeant Dmytro Samborskyi, with the call sign Simba, died near the town of Huliaipole, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, on October 7, 2023. He received multiple shrapnel wounds during an artillery shelling. On November 7, the fighter would have turned 31 years old.

Dmytro was from the city of Tlumach, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. As a child, he was engaged in karate and received awards in this sport. He graduated from a professional academy of road transport and construction, where he became a car repairman and a driver of category B and C vehicles.

He worked in his hometown at the Sklorezurs company for six months and later went abroad to work with his wife in Poland and the Czech Republic. He got a job at a factory or construction site there. On the eve of the Great War, he worked as a taxi driver. He loved fishing and participated in competitions.

“Two days before the full-scale invasion, my husband went to the military registration and enlisted as a driver. And when it all started, he stood up to defend Ukraine as part of the 102nd Territorial Defense Brigade, where he was the commander of the rifle squad,” said his wife Natalia. Dmytro was buried in his hometown. He is survived by his wife, son, daughter, mother and brother.

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

• Duda: We must do everything possible to enable Ukraine to return all of its territories
• Estonian general: Russian troops deploying ‘amoeba’ tactics in Ukraine
• Borrell: EU must change defense paradigm and start defending itself
• SBU: Ukraine’s modernized sea drones can carry 1 ton of explosives over 1,000 kilometers away