War maps show Ukraine’s progress after recapturing territories

According to the Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian forces have recaptured some positions from Russia in the Kharkiv region, whose latest maps show some of the gradual gains made by both sides along the front line.

In May, Russian forces launched an offensive in the northeast of the region, capturing villages near the border and gaining a foothold in the city of Vovchansk.

In its update on Friday, the Washington-based think tank ISW said Ukrainian troops had advanced into the center of Vovchansk. It quoted a commander of a Ukrainian drone battalion as saying the situation in northern Kharkiv Oblast had stabilized and Russian troops had made no significant progress in the region for more than two weeks.

New ISW maps show the current state of affairs along the front line. A graphic of the terrain around Kharkiv shows that Ukrainian troops advanced northeast of Vovchansk on June 24, the same day they made progress further west in central Starytsia.

Another map shows recent Ukrainian successes along the Kupiansk-Svatove-Kreminna line in Luhansk Oblast. This includes the recapture of lost positions south of the towns of Kreminna and east of Terny, where Ukraine reportedly advanced nearly a mile.

The ISW also cited a Ukrainian source who claimed on June 26 that Russian forces may have lost almost the entire 83rd Airborne Brigade in the Kharkiv direction due to casualties and refusal to fight. However, the think tank said there was no evidence for this claim and it may be exaggerated.

Newsweek The Russian Defense Ministry asked for comment via email.

A map of the terrain around the Donetsk region showed Russian advances east of Druzhba on June 24 and the capture of the settlement of Rozdolivka on Thursday.

Vadym Filashkin, governor of the Donetsk region, said on Saturday that four civilians had been killed and six injured in Russian attacks on residential areas in the east of the region in recent days. Most of the victims were in the village of Niu-York, just five kilometers from the front line.

Russia recently stepped up its offensive on the nearby city of Toretsk, thereby intensifying its attacks on the civilian population.

On Saturday, one civilian was killed and two others injured in attacks by Russian forces across the Dnipro River in the further south of Kherson, local authorities reported.