Day 474: Jun 12Today Ukrainian 35th Marine Brigade posted a video of clearing the houses and raising the Ukrainian flag above Storozheve. This is the village that Russians previously tried to preserve control of and even launched mechanized counterattacks. The Marines also showed one of such counterattacks, and judging by the footage, Russians used several squads of infantry reinforced with 1 tank and 3 armored fighting vehicles. Since Ukrainians were in control of the tactical heights, the counterattack was quickly rebuffed, and the whole assault unit was eliminated. Today Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister also confirmed yesterday’s claims and speculations and verified that Ukrainians successfully pushed Russians from Levadne and gained an important foothold on the next ridge of tactical heights. If we look at the topographic map, we can see that from Levadne, Ukrainians can conveniently continue slicing off Russian defenses. If you still remember, yesterday I told you that the fall of Levadne means that the Russian defense in Novodarivka and Rivnopil will automatically collapse due to the threat of encirclement. And this is exactly what happened today. After seeing that the escape window was closing at an unprecedented rate, Russian forces wasted no time and retreated from Novodarivka. Ukrainian forces have already entered Russian fortifications in and around the settlement, and as Russian Intelligence reported, Ukrainians are demining the field between this settlement and Novopil and overall preparing the roads for easy and stable supplies for further development of the counteroffensive operation. Some Russian sources reported that Russian forces launched a powerful counterattack in the direction of Makarivka and are about to return everything that they lost, however, it looks like this is just a supporting attack that tries to protect the flanks of the retreating forces from Rivnopil because some Russian sources already started mentioning that the village is in the grey zone.Yesterday, I told you that the fact that Russians blew up the dam highly likely means that they abandoned Urozhaine because otherwise, they would doom their own forces by cutting them off with the flooding. Today some sources started to confirm that Ukrainians established full control over this settlement, and started developing their attack further. In order to complicate Ukrainian advances even more, today, Russian forces blew up the second dam on this river, which means that Ukrainians will not be able to assault Russian settlements from the east. This saves the Russian defense from the immediate and uncontrollable collapse because right now, Russian forces at least manage to organize a coherent retreat. When it comes to the eastern part of the region, the fights around Novodonetske continue. Today Ukrainian 4th Tank Brigade released a video of how they are destroying Russian fortification in the tree lines west of the settlement and widening the bridgehead. It is expected that very soon, Ukrainians will also launch an attack on Kermenchyk, as they are already on the approach to this settlement. In the meantime, Ukrainian Air Force continues conducting precision strikes on Russian military bases and command posts. One of the biggest strikes happened in Henychesk, which was previously considered one of the safest parts of the Kherson region, which is why it gradually became the occupational administrative center. Ukrainian sources reported that they stuck one of the biggest Russian headquarters in the south. Ukrainians also continue conducting HIMARS strikes on Melitopol, Tokmak, and Molochne. Russian sources confirmed that in the aftermath of one of these strikes, Ukrainians have destroyed the headquarter of the highest level of command and eliminated the commander of the 35th Russian Army, Major General Goryachev. It was reported that this time almost all Russian generals were deployed to the Zaporizhzhia direction to be in touch with what is happening on the front and prevent another catastrophe, even the Chief of the Russian General Staff, Gerasimov, is reportedly somewhere in Zaporizhhzia, so Ukrainians Intelligence and Air Force are currently on a big hunt.