Malazan Empire: Werthead - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Ukraine has disabled the last remaining ferry over the Kerch Strait, leaving only the bridge to supply logistics in and out of Crimea.

The Feodosia terminal in Crimea has taken a big Ukrainian hit.

Ukrainian forces in Chasiv Yar have allegedly advanced back into the town centre. Very interesting if true, as Chasiv Yar should have totally fallen to Russian forces at least two years ago but Ukraine held on tenaciously, then managed to maintain a toehold on the far SW side of town, and now seems to be fighting back in.

Ukraine is continuing to push on the Lyman axis, pushing back Russian troops who are actually on the offensive in this sector. Quite remarkable.

Some indications of local counter-attacks even in Kostyantynivka, which is the main Russian offensive effort at present. Ukrainian forces have apparently broken up several Russian attacks by moving forwards into areas the Russians had previously believed cleared and then attacking the attackers at close quarters. Isolated events so far, but it seems to have disrupted Russian offensive efforts in the SE of the city. Some Ukrainian units are also apparently operating behind the Russian lines, as Russian lines are overstretched such that they are having difficulty keeping a continuous front into the town.

On the western Zaporizhzhia front, one claim that Novoyakovlivka has already been captured and is now fully under Ukrainian control after just a couple of days of engagement. Apparently Ukraine destroyed Russia's logistics out to miles behind the settlement, and the troops refused to make a heroic last stand there so withdrew. Pavlivka just to the south is now under attack as well. A lot of noise about this but until Kamyanske is fully retaken, it's probably a good idea not to get too excited.

Eyebrow-raising claim that Hungary was prepared to invade western Ukraine in 2022 if Russia had been more successful in the initial incursion.

My guess is that Hungary was eyeing annexing part of western Ukraine in the event of Russia taking Kyiv, so Hungary would have taken land away from Ukraine in the event of a full Russian victory. This did not materialise so Hungary stood down. Hungary would have certainly been kicked out of the EU and NATO for this, and would have faced enormous pressure to withdraw its forces. Orban also probably quickly realised that the Hungarian military would have been vastly out of its league even against Ukrainian border units and decided it was not a wise idea (and Ukraine 2026 would now make mincemeat out of them without thinking twice about it).

Ukrainian forces have fought their way into Stepnohirsk and Novoyakovlivka on the western Zaporizhzhia front, and Stepnohirsk is heavily contested with Ukrainian units in the town centre. This is a hugely key battle, and one the Russians in the sector have been warning about for months. If this area falls, Ukraine can quickly regain the positions it had during the 2023 offensive and, with vastly better drone and mine-clearing capabilities, start working towards their original goal of splitting the land bridge. This area has been denuded of Russian troops to support the Donetsk effort and they've now been sent back to shore up the area, but those reinforcements have mostly been diverted to the eastern Zaporizhzhia front. This sector is under-defended, and the Kherson sector south of the river, further west, is even less well-defended.

Ukraine appears to have retaken Milove on the border of Russia and Kharkiv Oblast, and are close to splitting the Russian control zone in Ukrainian territory in that sector in two.

Ukraine has also finally consolidated control of Vilne, which has been contested for some time.

Now reports that Ukraine has retaken the pocket containing the settlements of Sviatohirsk, Yarova, Sosnove and Oleksandrivka on the Lyman front, north-east Donetsk Oblast. That's big, it's blunting the Russian plan to envelop Slovyansk from the east and north east.

The Admiral Grigorovich missile frigate took direct hits from drones at port in Novorossiysk. The frigate is one of the largest ships remaining in the Black Sea Fleet and has been used to launch Kalibr cruise missiles into Ukraine. The extent of the damage remains unclear, though claims of it being destroyed and sunk seem exaggerated.

A Russian cargo ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain has sunk in the Sea of Azov.

The Russians are pushing hard again at Kostyantynivka, where the envelopment tactic from the south-east is starting to pay off. Russian drones are making life difficult for the Ukrainian defenders, but they are hold on tenaciously, and Russian forces are still some way from fully penetrating the south-eastern suburbs.

Ukrainian strikes appear to have massively degraded Russian production of air-defence and anti-drone weapons, leading to the current dominance of Ukrainian drone and airpower over significant stretches of the front.

The Ukrainians have indicated that 6,000 Russian soldiers have been neutralised - killed, captured or wounded - in four days. Even they seem taken aback by that and were questioning the figures, but they seem accurate. Russia has used some its biggest "meat wave" attacks in the war to date in concentrated counter-attacks in  south-western and eastern Zaporizhzhia, Kostiantynivka and on the northern front near Lyman.

Russia has been redeploying military forces from Donetsk to the Zaporizhzhia front to shore up the situation there, which is interesting.

Apparently Ukraine has now received a formal request from unspecified allies to halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. They have agreed in return for Russia doing the same. Which obviously they won't.

Azath Vitr (D, on 04 April 2026 - 12:53 PM, said:

Ground combat robots are more complex than other drones and you absolutely need firm control over them meaning the range is limited. They are also a lot more expensive than other types of drones (at least the effective large fighting models are, obviously the ones that look like something from Robot Wars with an AK strapped to the top, not so much), eliminating a key benefit of drone technology.

You'd need tens of thousands of the expensive models to undertake any kind of large-scale ground offensive. And the operators would need to remain relatively close behind them (within fibre optic range at least) as they advanced. Not impossible, but it creates new logistical challenges.