It Started With A 12km Breach…Ukraine Just LIBERATED 12 Settlements on One Front

Modern military history is full of countless flawless plans that collapsed on the battlefield.

Yet, no invasion attempt has hit a wall as quickly and disastrously as the fantasies Moscow built up for this summer.

Those thick red arrows the Kremlin drew on the map pointed to Slovian, Kremursk, and Zaparisia as targets for certain victory.

Moscow spent months preparing for this final blow.

It stockpiled train loads of ammunition and deployed massive mechanized units to the front.

By their calculations, it was only a matter of time before Ukraine’s defenses were crushed under this heavy steel storm.

But right now in Ukraine, something is happening that is terrifying Russian troops more than ever before.

Ukraine did not merely weather this massive shock.

It rose from its ashes to launch that devastating counteroffensive, dragging the Russian army into a hellish dead end.

And this incredible turnaround has created a breakthrough on the front lines unseen since 2023, nearly completely paralyzing the advance of the Russian war machine, which had been thought unstoppable.

Statements made by Alexander Searski, commander and chief of the Ukrainian armed forces confirm this.

Since late January, an area of 480 square kilm has returned to Ukrainian control on the southeastern and eastern fronts.

This figure is not just a dry statistic.

480 km represents the systematic recapture of territories that had been under Russian occupation for months.

Eight settlements were liberated in the Denro Petrovsk region.

Four more settlements were freed in the Zaparigia region.

A total of 12 villages have been returned to the Ukrainian flag.

And all of this occurred during a period when Russia was attempting to fully sustain its spring offensive.

The most striking detail in Sirki’s statement was this.

The gains were achieved through coordinated operations by airborne units and adjacent forces.

In other words, Ukraine used drones to devastate Russian positions.

Then, infantry and mechanized units cleared out the remnants.

This was not a panic move, but a planned counter offensive, and the results were devastating.

According to an analysis by Ajance France Press based on data from the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian army managed to advance only 23 km across the entire front line in March.

To put this into perspective, in January this figure was 319 km.

In February, it dropped to 123.

In March, it fell to nearly zero.

This is the lowest advance recorded since September 2023.

An army possessing the world’s largest artillery arsenal, expending over a thousand soldiers daily and consuming tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition monthly, has come to a standstill.

And there is a single reason for this pause.

Ukraine’s counter offensive has forced Russia into a defensive posture rather than an offensive one.

President Zalinski assessed the situation based on his own intelligence and British MI6 reports.

The situation at the front is the best it has been for Ukraine in the last 10 months.

Zalinski’s words were not mere wishful thinking.

They were backed by concrete data.

Russia’s planned offensive in March was thwarted by the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, ISW, further clarified this picture.

According to the ISW’s daily report, Ukraine’s counteroffensives in the Julia Pole and Olexandrevka directions continue to leave Russian military command facing dilemmas that its already overstretched forces cannot handle.

The word dilemma in this sentence is critical because Russia is currently caught between two fires.

It wants to advance towards Slovian Kromursk in the east, but it must allocate resources to defend the territory it has lost in the southeast.

This was precisely Ukraine’s strategy to derail Russia from its own offensive plan and it worked.

But we haven’t reached the most striking parts of the story yet because it’s not just Russian plans that are collapsing on the front lines.

Russian soldiers morale has also collapsed.

According to reports from the partisan movement, Russian soldiers are sabotaging their own vehicles to avoid being sent to the front lines in Costantka Donetsk.

They’re intentionally damaging engines.

They’re draining technical fluids.

They are destroying electrical cables and fuel systems.

And they usually do this right before deployments.

These are not isolated incidents.

This practice has now become widespread in a unit of Russia’s 255th motorized rifle regiment.

Even commanders are avoiding escalating the situation because they know where their soldiers are being sent.

The fear of combat on the front lines outweighs the risk of punishment.

This is no longer an isolated incident.

It is a systemic collapse.

And there is another dimension to this collapse.

Perhaps the most shocking one.

Some young people born and raised in Russia are now fighting against the Putin regime on the Ukrainian side.

A young Russian cenamed Reagan left his comfortable life in Europe to join the Free Russia Legion.

He made his decision after the BHA massacre.

I decided this was wrong and that I could help the Ukrainian people in some way.

He says he serves as an electronic warfare specialist.

He identifies the positions of Russian troops and relays this information to Ukrainian commanders.

The Legion’s mission is clear to overthrow the Putin regime.

Reagan’s strategy, however, is based on the principle of thousands of small blows.

Everyone does their part, and one day the final blow comes.

There are approximately 3,000 Russian volunteers in the Ukrainian army.

This figure alone illustrates the scale of the moral collapse in Russia.

Daily casualty figures also support this picture.

According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russia lost 940 soldiers on April 6th alone.

According to the Ukrainian side, total Russian losses since the start of the war have reached an estimated 1,34,490 personnel.

These figures are statistical proof of an army’s collapse.

And there is much more to be said on this subject.

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Now, let’s continue.

Because the scale of Russia’s manpower crisis is far more dire than anticipated, Russia’s capacity to compensate for these losses is also rapidly dwindling.

Russia is losing approximately 1,000 soldiers a day.

Its training capacity, however, is between 30,000 and 40,000 per month.

In other words, the system is teetering on a knife’s edge.

Even more alarming, the training new soldiers receive has dropped to as little as 5 days.

Ukraine, on the other hand, provides 51 days of training to its new recruits.

The training period, which should legally be 4 months, remains merely on paper in Russia.

Prisoners receive training for 10 to 15 days.

Foreign soldiers brought in from Nepal, Iraq, and Africa are being sent to the front lines without even understanding Russian.

A Bundian citizen was taken to a military camp without even knowing he had signed a contract.

This is proof of just how desperate an army is for manpower.

But Russia’s reliance on foreign troops doesn’t stop there.

Soldiers from North Korea make up one of the darkest chapters of this war.

Since the end of 2024, over 14,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia, and the fate of these soldiers is horrific.

According to data from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, approximately 6,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded.

This amounts to nearly half of the deployed force.

According to an assessment by the British Ministry of Defense, the vast majority of these casualties occurred during infantry assaults with high casualty rates.

Kim Jong-un is praising the heroism of these soldiers and has ordered a monument to be erected in Pyongyang.

But the reality is that North Korean soldiers are being wiped out on Russia’s front lines.

This situation shows that even the external support Russia receives cannot stem the bleeding on the front lines.

The volunteer system is also collapsing.

By early 2026, recruitment bonuses had skyrocketed to 3 million rubles or approximately $30,000.

There was a 400% increase in just one year.

But the money no longer works because enough coffins have returned to the villages.

People have realized that 3 million rubles are of no use for a dead man.

The pool of conscripts has largely dried up.

Recruitment figures have dropped by 22% compared to the same period in 2025.

Barracks are emptying out.

All these figures point to one thing.

Putin’s 2026 goals are falling apart.

The goal of reaching Slovian and Kremursk in the east is no longer realistic.

In the south, the plan to advance on Zaparisia has backfired.

Russia is losing territory instead of gaining it.

Sirki, having also visited the Pokovsk region, ordered additional ammunition and supplies to reinforce Ukrainian troops.

Ukraine is holding its defensive lines and expanding its counteroffensives.

Now, let’s turn to the future course of this war.

There are strong signs that Ukraine will do more than just crush the Russian spring offensive.

The situation Putin will face this summer could be far more dire than the failure of the spring offensive.

First, let’s consider the ally factor.

Iran, one of Russia’s most critical weapons suppliers throughout the war, is now preoccupied with its own conflict.

Operations by the USIsrael coalition against Iran, have severely disrupted Tran’s supply of Shahed drones and ballistic missiles to Russia.

Putin is on the verge of losing his most trusted weapons supply line and Iran’s decline is merely one part of the unraveling of Putin’s alliance network.

Assad has fallen in Syria and Maduro has been sidelined in Venezuela.

Russia has been unable to provide meaningful military support to any of these countries with which it signed strategic partnership pacts.

This situation sends a clear message to Putin’s remaining allies.

Russia’s promise of protection remains merely on paper.

The two remaining major partners are China and North Korea.

We have already seen North Korea’s contribution.

Thousands of troops sent to the front lines and millions of artillery shells.

But the cost of this contribution is heavy.

The 50% casualty rate among North Korean soldiers raises questions about whether Pyongyang can sustain its appetite for this war in the long term.

China, however, is making a different calculation.

Beijing is avoiding sending weapons directly to Russia as the military might displayed by the US and Israel in Iran has deeply shaken Beijing.

The operations in Iran demonstrated that the US can destroy command and control centers, missile launchers, and underground bunkers with surgical precision.

Xiinping knows that any military move against Taiwan would face the same treatment.

Each of China’s 1550 ballistic missile launch systems is on the US’s priority target list.

The operations in Iran taught Xi another lesson.

The US prefers to strike the archer, not the arrow.

In other words, it targets missile launchers, command centers, and decision makers.

Beijing has taken this lesson to heart and is currently refraining from openly supporting Moscow.

In short, Putin is taking hits from all sides on the Allied front.

This situation directly impacts Russia’s firepower on the front lines.

The already slowing advance could come to a complete halt with the cut off of Iranian supplies.

The second critical factor is the manpower crisis.

In an environment where Russia is losing 1,000 soldiers daily, training periods have been reduced to 5 days and the volunteer system is collapsed.

Sustaining an offensive throughout the summer becomes mathematically impossible.

If Ukraine manages to neutralize more than 40,000 Russian soldiers per month, the balance on the front lines will shift dramatically in Ukraine’s favor within 6 months.

The third factor is Ukraine’s technological superiority.

According to the Guardians report from Kiev, unmanned ground vehicles now account for 90% of the Ukrainian military’s logistics.

In January, the Ukrainian armed forces carried out a record 7,000 operations using ground vehicles.

Robots equipped with remotec controlled machine guns and grenade launchers can defend a position on their own for 45 days.

Last summer, a kamicazi ground robot carrying 200 kg of explosives traveled 20 km to blow up a school building used by Russian troops.

A drone operator serving in the 25th Airborne Brigade described the situation as follows.

The front line looks like a terminator.

A ground robot comes to your position and there’s nothing you can do.

For the first time in military history, Russian soldiers surrendered to an armed ground robot.

This isn’t science fiction.

This is the front line of 2026.

Commander of the Third Corps, Andre Bitki, stated that Ukraine is on the brink of another revolution alongside the ongoing revolution in unmanned aerial vehicles.

He predicted that groundbased robotic systems will fundamentally transform the battlefield and replace a significant portion of the troops.

Ukraine is not limiting the use of this technology to its own battlefield.

Zalinski has signed 10-year defense agreements with several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

These agreements include the supply of lowcost Ukrainian-made drones to Gulf countries to shoot down Iran’s Shahed Kamicazi drones.

Ukraine has transformed into an arms exporter in the midst of a war.

This stands in direct contrast to Putin’s narrative of a country on the brink of collapse.

The fourth and perhaps most decisive factor, morale in Ukraine.

Zalinski’s leadership, the army’s resolve, and the people’s resistance have not been broken.

On the contrary, they have grown stronger.

Zalinsky addressed the British Parliament.

He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In international polls, he received the highest approval rating among foreign leaders.

When all these dynamics come together, the picture that emerges is this.

This summer, Putin may be forced to make decisions to withdraw a significant portion of his troops from Ukraine.

This is not speculation.

It is a mathematical necessity.

At that point, Putin will have two options.

Either a second general mobilization will be declared or he will completely seed the initiative to Ukraine.

And right at this point, the spectre of 2022 comes into play.

The announcement of partial mobilization in September 2022 triggered the greatest social shock in Russia’s recent history.

When Putin announced that 300,000 reserveists would be called up, a wave of panic swept across the country.

According to a study by the Bell, which compiled migration data from 70 countries, at least 650,000 Russian citizens have left the country since February 2022 and have not returned.

The majority of those leaving were young, educated professionals.

Reactions within Russia were also fierce.

More than 1,300 people were detained during anti-war protests in major cities.

Putin initially labeled those leaving as the natural cleansing of society and traitors.

But the subsequent brain drain dealt a second blow to the Russian economy already strained by the war.

Now a second mobilization repeats this scenario on a far more devastating scale.

Because in 2022, people still believe the war would be short-lived.

By 2026, no one harbors such illusions anymore.

The announcement of a second mobilization will trigger a much larger exodus, a much deeper economic collapse, and much stronger social anger than the first.

With the economy already grappling with a 3.

4 trillion rubble deficit, and a labor shortage, such a step could trigger a social and economic heart attack.

If mobilization isn’t implemented, the current volunteer system is on the brink of collapse.

Both paths lead to disaster for Putin, and perhaps the most dangerous signal is coming from within Russia itself.

Public support for the war is quietly but steadily eroding.

According to a February 2026 poll by the independent Lvada Center, support for the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine has dropped to 72.

2%.

The most striking finding of the same survey, however, pertained to peace negotiations.

In February 2026, a record 67.

2% of respondents said peace negotiations should begin.

The percentage of those wanting military operations to continue, however, dropped to 24.

3%.

This is the lowest level recorded since the question was first asked.

This could be interpreted as the Kremlin beginning to instill a peace message in society through its own polling agency.

Of course, these polls must be read with caution.

Restrictions on freedom of expression in Russia, the criminalization of anti-war rhetoric, and state control over the media make it difficult to measure the true public sentiment.

But the trend is clear.

Support is declining, war fatigue is growing, and the demand for peace is strengthening.

Putin has no means left to stem this tide.

The big question is how long the Kremlin can manage this contradiction.

A 3 million ruble bonus no longer convinces anyone.

In the coming weeks, all eyes will turn to this front because Ukraine’s counteroffensive is not just about territorial gains.

It is proof that Putin’s war machine has reached its mechanical, human, and political limits.

And once those limits are crossed, there is no turning back.

This content was prepared for you by TGN.

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