Victory Chronicles-DAY 856

On June 28, 2024, Russian occupants bombed the village of New York in the Donetsk Oblast, resulting in four fatalities and injuries to three other civilians, including an 8-year-old girl. The Russian occupation forces used KAB-250 to target the Toretsk territorial community, causing a head wound to a 45-year-old man in the private sector. One shell struck an apartment building, killing four civilians aged 43 to 76 and injuring a 39-year-old woman and her 8-year-old daughter. Both individuals were transported to a medical facility with mine-blast injuries, bruises, and contusions. The child’s condition is currently considered serious. These attacks mark another instance of the Russian occupation forces engaging in bombing attacks in the area. The Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor’s Office provided the information.

According to The New York Times citing US and NATO intelligence, the Russian occupation army in Ukraine suffered significant losses in May, with an average of over 1,000 soldiers killed and wounded per day. The offensive in north Kharkiv Oblast contributed to these increased casualties. The Russian army recruits about 25-30 thousand soldiers monthly, roughly the same number as its losses. This strategy of “meat assaults” helps create a buffer zone along the border, making it more challenging for Ukrainians to strike deeper into the country. However, the recruits sent to the front to replenish losses are poorly trained, limiting Moscow’s ability to form more combat-ready units and increasing losses. The casualties are estimated based on various sources such as satellite imagery, intercepts, social media, and official reports from Russia and Ukraine. Western intelligence sources believe Russia may not need another mobilization due to these sustained casualties.

Fifteen fires broke out in the Kherson Oblast during the day as a result of hostile attacks. The fires affected several buildings, including three residential buildings, two apartments in an apartment building, two outbuildings, a car, and a non-residential building. The efforts to extinguish the fires were made difficult by repeated shelling and the launch of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with explosives. Despite these challenges, the fires were eventually brought under control. In addition to the building fires, the rescuers also had to extinguish fires in natural ecosystems, such as dead wood, stubble, and a wheat field. These fires were ignited due to enemy shelling and had a combined area of 35.87 hectares. 

Fighters of the National Guard of Ukraine have successfully destroyed a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft in Donetsk Oblast during a combat mission. The incident took place on June 23 and was carried out by a combined crew of the Igla portable air defense missile system from the 31st Brigade of the National Guard. The Guard members, who have been on the defensive since the beginning of the invasion, spotted the enemy aircraft and fired a well-aimed shot that destroyed the Su-25, also known as the Rook. 

Russian offensive operations in the Toretsk direction suggest that the Russian military command does not consider a large-scale operation to advance towards Kostyantynivka from multiple operational directions feasible. Kostyantynivka is the southern edge of a belt of four major Ukrainian cities that forms the backbone of Ukraine’s defense of Donetsk Oblast, and Russian forces have long sought to seize cities within this Ukrainian fortress belt.

Russian forces made relatively rapid tactical gains northwest of Avdiivka in April 2024, and ISW assessed at that time that Russian forces may have intended to advance northward along the H-20 (Donetsk City-Kostyantynivka) highway towards Kostyantynivka from the south to support future offensive operations from Chasiv Yar towards Kostyantynivka from the east. Russian forces have not succeeded in seizing Chasiv Yar or making further significant tactical gains into the town in recent months, however, and the rate of Russian advance northwest of Avdiivka has since slowed significantly.

A Russian operation to advance north along the H-20 highway and westward from Chasiv Yar would also have pursued the operational envelopment and encirclement of the Ukrainian grouping in the Toretsk area, a considerable undertaking that Russian forces have routinely failed to achieve against other Ukrainian force groupings throughout the full-scale invasion.

Continued Russian offensive operations west and southwest of Avdiivka and the continued Russian focus on advancing northwest of Avdiivka towards the T0504 (Kostyantynivka-Pokrovsk) highway instead of further north of the Avdiivka salient suggests that Russian forces currently aim to advance westward towards Pokrovsk instead of pursuing operations that could support a wider operation to seize Kostyantynivka from the south and east. The Russian military command may intend for operations in the Toretsk direction to support an envisioned push from Chasiv Yar towards Kostyantynivka in a narrower offensive operation to seize the city. 

Russian forces may alternatively have no intention of making significant tactical gains in the Toretsk direction and may hope that offensive operations in the area will apply pressure on Ukrainian forces along a wider front in Donetsk Oblast and facilitate gains in the Chasiv Yar and Avdiivka directions.

Junior Sergeant Ilya Shelepnytskyi, with the call sign Chykatylo, was killed on February 2, 2024, in the village of Pervomaiske, Donetsk Oblast. Together with his fighters, he was returning from a combat mission when an enemy drone tracked them.

Ilya Vasylovych was 26 years old. He was born in the village of Luzhany, Chernivtsi Oblast. He graduated from Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University with honors and received a master’s degree in telecommunications and radio engineering. For some time he worked at a factory.

During the full-scale invasion, he served in the ranks of the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade named after Yakiv Handziuk. He was a tank commander. He was awarded the Order for Courage, III class, and the badge “For Personal Bravery in Battle”.

“Ilya was a very brave and courageous man, I felt like I was behind a stone wall around him. He was always ready to help everyone, to give his last. He was a man with an interesting sense of humor that is definitely memorable. He dreamed of a big family, children, and I’m sure he would have been a great father. Ilya has forever occupied a part of my heart, we all miss him very much… I love him through time and space,” wrote the bride Iryna Sobko. The fighter was buried in his native Chernivtsi Oblast. Ilya is survived by his parents, brother, fiancée and other relatives.

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

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