Malazan Empire: Werthead - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Massive strike on the Tuapse oil terminal, they really did a number on that this time. It was ablaze for some time.

After some days of denial, Russian milbloggers are admitting that the Lyman front is close to cracking. Ukrainian forces have definitively penetrated significant distances into the Russian lines and reached Yampil, which is way in the rear. Ukrainian forces have pushed from Lyman itself to reach Highway 00528, threatening Russian logistics, and additional units have been reported close to Zarechne. It appears that Ukrainian units have also met Russian units engaged in offensive action head-on at Bohuslavka and just east of Staryi Karavan. Russian forces seem to be in disarray. Reaching Yampil has also cut the T-05-13 resupply route which is causing major problems.

The Azov Battalion has claimed that Ukraine has gained air and drone superiority over the central Donetsk front extending as far as Donetsk City itself. Russian tactical drone use seems to have dropped hugely in this area and Ukrainian aerial dominance is creating massive headaches for Russian resupply to their main offensive effort in the fortress belt area.

Ukraine reports that repairs to the Druzhba oil pipeline are nearly complete and oil shipments to Hungary could resume within a week.

Moldova has blocked transit through its territory for multiple senior Russian commanders and Transnistrian collaborators. This effectively traps them in Transnistria as clearly Ukraine is not going to wave them through.

A private defence contractor shot down Shaheds over Kharkiv, apparently the first time a private defence company as destroyed Russian combat drone.

Sweden's King Gustaf has visited Ukraine. During the visit it was confirmed the Ukrainian pilots would start Gripen training soon.

Ukraine has destroyed a Rubikon UAV base near Mariupol.

Trump has finally acknowledged recent Ukrainian successes, stating that "Ukraine is moving forwards."

A Russian drone appears to have lost maneuvering capability and flown over 16km into Romanian territory. Romanian forces are trying to locate it.

Excellent end to the day. Interesting to see how fast they can now unlock the aid for Ukraine or if Slovakia will continue to mess around.

Moldova has completed its formal and withdrawal from the CIS, which has taken an immense amount of time. Interesting to see if other countries follow, the CIS no longer really fulfils much of a function.

Boris Johnson, to his credit, has spent 48 hours on the front line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and received a warm welcome from Ukrainian soldiers, who have not forgotten Johnson's early support during the initial invasion (or him randomly wandering around Kyiv for a meet-and-greet with civilians whilst the city was still regularly under air attack and he was the sitting UK PM).

The Orthodox Easter ceasefire is kind of in place, but seems mainly to have resulted in a drop of long-range drone and missile attacks. Close-range combat along the front is still taking place.

Ukraine has counter-attacked near Malievka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and have advanced along the Vorona River and crossed back into Donetsk Oblast. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is very close to being fully 100% liberated.

Some very dubious rumours circling that Russia sources have threatened Ukraine with nuclear strikes (overtly or less so), going back some time, and Ukraine has responded by saying that they will hit every Russian NPP within range of their borders with multiple cruise missiles and drones, which is a few. Pretty much all of them would be highly vulnerable to such strikes, and rather than a nuclear blast, could produce Chornobyl-style meltdowns and fallout plumes that could impact a huge amount of western Russia (also eastern Europe but yikes). Treat that one with caution.

There's some crazy stuff going on on the main front around Pokrovsk. The Russians have - more or less - secured Pokrovsk and advanced to Hryshyne to the NW. They then attacked out into the fields beyond but that's some of Ukraine's best-prepared defensive fortifications of the whole war, and the situation there seems to be descending into shambolic nonsense, with Russian units being ordered forwards no matter the cost and being annihilated. The Russians do have drone and artillery support here, and better AA back behind the lines, but even so they are making limited or little progress, and in some cases have been rolled back. Ukrainian units are apparently fighting into Hryshyne again, and maybe be trying to retake the settlement. Something the Ukrainians are doing now which we haven't seen this regularly is "breaking up" attacks, Russians advance in small groups, in some cases now supported by armour again, sometimes bike riders, with still the occasional horse deployment (JFC), but Ukraine uses drones to pin down one part of the group but the rest can still move. Rather than stay and support the pinned elements the rest try to move, disrupting the unit advance and usually ending with the group completely separated and then neutralised with greater ease. It makes it easier for Russians to also surrender rather than just die, because they're not in range of their comrades to be shot.

Ukraine is undertaking offensive action in Yampol, on the Lyman front, having previously established Russian forces in this area are heavily under-supplied. The Russian forces on this front are very overstretched and apparently screaming blue murder at being told to "retake" Kupyansk (which they haven't actually held since late 2022) with not much reinforcements or resupply. The fighting here is in the heavy forest belt, which is extremely unpleasant.

Ukrainian forces in eastern Zaporizhzhia have reached the main Russian minefields and are now blowing them up with drones (I suspect those terrifying remote-dropped German munitions which can blow up entire fields are being used here). The problem is that you can still miss mines this way, so demining human, canine and ground-robot teams still need to go in and clear them up. Progress is slow, but not as slow as during the Robotyne offensive when they have much less specialist equipment available.

Zelensky has proposed a pan-European defensive alliance consisting of the EU, the UK, Norway, Ukraine and Turkey. The alliance would effectively work as a mini-NATO and would ensure efficiencies in military procurement and intelligence sharing.

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.