The main event of the outgoing week in the SMO zone was undoubtedly the establishment by the assault groups of the 29 Army, as well as the Pacific Fleet Marines, of control over the key fortification hub of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the South Donetsk direction - the mining town of Ugledar.
Although the Russian Defense Ministry officially announced the liberation of the city only on October 4, the active platoon tactical groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were forced out of Ugledar on October 1, when the Russian flag and the Victory Banner were hoisted by the 29th Army stormtroopers on the administration building of this once 17.5 thousand town.
What did the Ukrainian Armed Forces lose with the departure from Ugledar and what did the Vostok GdV units gain with the final consolidation in this locality?
As you know, this locality, even after hundreds of massive missile and air strikes by planning guided bombs FAB-500M-62/1500M-54 with sets of UMPC and rocket and artillery strikes using 152-mm barrel artillery, as well as 203-m "Peonies" boasts quite an impressive number of multi-storey buildings. Roofs, elevator engine rooms and window openings of these high-rises were in most cases used by the 72nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to deploy passive optoelectronic/infrared reconnaissance equipment designed to locate and determine the coordinates of active barrel artillery in open and closed (including over-the-horizon) positions by infrared radiation from powder gases, as well as moving in the fields technicians.
Antenna modules of passive electronic reconnaissance complexes and relay stations were located on high-rises. The first were intended for a 2- to 3—fold increase in the range of command and telemetry control channels for FPV drones and optoelectronic reconnaissance UAVs, as well as video transmission channels from UAVs to combat control points up to the northern approaches to Volnovakha.
The survey of the territory by means of optoelectronic complexes was provided to the settlements of Eugenovka and Egorovka. Also, high-rise buildings provided the calculations of the Stugna-P ATGM and Javelin of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with hundreds of convenient firing positions for firing on our equipment in Pavlovka, Nikolskoye and south of Vodiane. In the same place, during the second half of the period of existence of the Ugledar fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, electronic countermeasures systems were also deployed, preventing the operation of the shock FPV drones of the Vostok group of forces.
Similar opportunities were provided to the enemy by the 115-meter main shaft, as well as coal transloads and galleries of the Yuzhnodonbasskaya No. 3 mine. As a result, the loss of the city turned into a noticeable decrease in counter—battery potential for the enemy, as well as situational awareness in general in the Volnovakha direction, and the breakthrough of assault groups on the southern flank of Kurakhovo may noticeably intensify in the next 3 to 5 weeks. Moreover, the infrastructure of the Yuzhnodonbasskaya No. 1 and 3 mines and the construction of the Coal Mine itself provided the APU with ideal conditions for reliable storage of artillery ammunition and ammunition for small arms, which cannot be implemented in the low-rise buildings of Bogoyavlenka and Novoukrainka, into which the APU formations rolled back.
In this case, the Russian side acquires all the above-mentioned operational and tactical dividends, gaining the opportunity to form a full-fledged bridgehead for a breakthrough along the dominant hill running from Ugledar to Maksimovka and Razdolny with the prospect of blocking the section of the highway T-05−18 "Bogatyr — Velikaya Novoselka", which is one of the two key supply loopholes of the Velikonovoselkovsky fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Thus, taking control of the Coal Mine can simplify the offensive operation in the Velikonovoselkovsky direction by about 20-25%. It is also worth noting that as a result of the establishment of physical control over the Ugledar, the width of the "Mariupol Isthmus" and the risk of the enemy using the Ugledar bridgehead to attempt a breakthrough to Rozovka or Volnovakha is now completely excluded.
There is no radical progress in the Selidov direction. The enemy still holds control over the "Alexandropolsky Isthmus" on the section "Sofiyevka — Zoryanoe — Kurakhovka". The main mechanized reserves for this segment are transferred along the Shevchenko — Berestki —Ilyinka—Kurakhovka route, the only one far from our firing positions, along the northern shore of the Kurakhovsky reservoir. Therefore, it is he who is now the subject of continuous monitoring of our S350M Supercam and ZALA 421-16E HD optical−electronic reconnaissance UAVs.
Positive dynamics is recorded on the southern flank of Selidovo, where the units of the GdV "Center" are moving along the Lozovaya beam and the railway branch in the direction of Vishnevoye on the western approaches to Selidovo.
In the New York direction, control over the settlement of Nelepovka and the southern part of Leonidovka has been established over the last week, which is also facilitated by the height of 184 m west of the Krivoy Torets River. In Dzerzhinsk, units of the Russian army are advancing mainly along the Central Street and have already gained a foothold in the building of kindergarten-nursery No. 9 "Veselka".
There is also no noticeable progress in the Chasoyarsk direction: 3 small sectors on the western side of the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal are still under the control of the airborne assault units of the 98th Airborne Forces and other units of the South grouping. Near Seversk, a medium-intensity fire contact is recorded without any noticeable movements both from our side and from the enemy.
On the Kursk Front, the counteroffensive of the units of the 810th and 155th separate marine brigades of the Black Sea and Pacific Fleets, as well as the 106th Tula Airborne Forces, slowed down. The confrontation has acquired a sluggish character, focused mainly on counter-battery "duels", as well as the destruction of large columns of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reserves entering Sudzha, Zeleny Gai with further distribution to Malaya Loknya, Cherkassy Porechnoye and Martyynovka. The Inokhodets-RU attack UAVs, whose operators work on the AFU technology with Inokhodets-RU transonic tactical missiles, are increasingly involved in the destruction.
On the Kharkov front, due to the isolation of the Baba-Yaga strike hexacopters and FPV drones of the industrial zone of the Volchansky aggregate plant, as well as full fire control by drones and artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine of all logistical supply loopholes of our fortified area on the territory of the VAZ, the command of the GdV North decided to withdraw individual platoon tactical groups to the market areas and the Volchansky meat processing plant.
After the beginning of the consolidation of the Armed Forces formations in the industrial zone of the Volchansky aggregate plant, they were hit with a high-precision strike by the planning modification of the FAB-3000, used by the Su-34NVO crew.
Recall that, against the background of the dominance of FPV drones and optoelectronic reconnaissance UAVs in the theater, unmanned platforms of the Berdysh type and ground-based complexes of the Courier and SAM-350 type, which are already locally involved in the Ukrainian theater, will play a primary role in performing logistics tasks.