Day 289: December 09The big news is coming from the Luhansk region.Here, the Ukrainians managed to undermine Russian defense in one of the strongest fortifications on the Svatove line, cut supplies to the Kyslivka group, and finally force the Russians out of this group of settlements. Such developments not only served as a great ending to the battle for the Kyslivka group but also set conditions for further expansion because the Ukrainians effectively created a salient around the Russians in Volodymyrivka. Volodymyrivka will fall very soon as well, and here is why.First of all, when it comes to the Kyslivka group, last time, the Ukrainians have broken through the primary defenses by assaulting Stepova Novoselivka and Ivanivka. From here, tough fights have been taking place between Yahidne and Kyslivka, as the Russians still had pretty strong positions. For the Ukrainians, attacking often meant getting caught in the crossfire. That is why the Ukrainians slowly developed new tactics to storm Russian positions more effectively.Firstly, the Ukrainians conducted an attack on Mykolaivka. The attack was unexpected, and the Russians even lost control over this village for some time, and this was enough. The Ukrainians created a lot of uncertainty in this region and also started attacking Orlianske. The main purpose of these attacks was to fix Russian positions and keep them busy while the Ukrainians conducted their main attacks. And their main attacks were directed toward Yahidne and Kyslivka.When it comes to Kotliarivka, there was a substantial decrease in the number of attacks. The main reason behind it was the fact that Kotliarivka is located on the highlands relative to Ukrainian positions in Tabaivka. If we look at the topographic map, we can see that Kotliarivka is around 40 meters above Tabaivka. We can also see that both Kyskivka and Yahidne are located at the highlands as well, which gave the Russians a tactical advantage. However, after the Ukrainians captured Stepova Novoselivka and Ivanivka, attacking Kyslivka became much easier.Nonetheless, it was not attacks that eventually pushed the Russians out of their positions – it was the lack of supplies. As you can see, there is basically only one road that the Russians could use to supply the Kyslivka group, and even though some parts of it are behind the hill, other parts are still in direct vision from Ivanivka. A logical question would be, then, why the Ukrainians attacked them at all if they supposedly could just wait until the Russians ran out of the supplies. There are two reasons. Firstly, some supplies still got through. Secondly, constant attacks made the Russians spend their supplies at a faster rate, much faster than the new supplies were coming in.Russian retreat from Kyslivka did not attract a lot of media attention, which is why I was uncertain for some time about such developments. However, yesterday, when the Russian Ministry of Defense reported about shelling a Ukrainian command center located in Kyslivka, it became clear that the Ukrainians established total control over this region. The latest reports suggest that the Ukrainians are still trying to storm Yahidne, which proves to be difficult, and they also advanced towards Volodymyrivka, which proved to be successful.Overall, the Ukrainians managed to starve out the Russians in the Kyslivka group and get rid of some of the most fortified positions on their way to Svatove. This improved Ukrainian tactical positions substantially and set conditions for future advances toward Volodymyrivka.If you are against the invasion of Ukraine and want to support the work that I am doing, consider making a purchase in the online store UA Supporter. Here you can find a lot of products with Ukrainian symbols, to not only show your support for this channel, but also for Ukraine.