Day 277: November 27The Kuzemivka area is one of the hottest areas on the front line. Here, the Russians lost the highlands and were experiencing significant difficulties in holding their positions. Nonetheless, despite the local tactical advantage, the Ukrainians couldn’t develop their offensive further because they simply couldn’t defeat the Russians in the forest. The situation became critical because, simultaneously, the Russians moved a lot of troops from Kherson to Luhansk, and it was expected that the Russians would reinforce the Kuzemivka area and stop Ukrainian progress. So, the Ukrainians urgently needed to push the Russians before their chances of winning diminished.After scanning the whole forest with drones and bombing the identified Russian positions, the Ukrainians resumed their ground attacks, and the latest news suggests that the Ukrainians achieved success. Even according to Russian sources, such as militarymaps.info, the forest is no longer under Russian control. Right now, it is marked as a grey zone, and it indeed seems like the Ukrainians still need to finish clearing the forest because, apparently, the Russians can afford to conduct attacks from Kuzemivka.Firstly, the reason behind the Ukrainians not being able to use this forest entirely is simple. The Russians have left a lot of mines. There were a lot of mines even before the Russians left, which is why developing ground attacks was quite tricky.Secondly, the Russians are attacking Novoselivske down the line because they understand that if the Ukrainians control both Novoselivske and the forest, then the Russians in Kuzemivka are doomed. If we look at the topographic map, we can see that Novoselivske and the woods are the two highest points on the map around Kuzemivka. As long as the Russians controlled the forest, they could counter Ukrainian attacks from Novoselivske, so after losing the forest, the Russians were desperate to take back Novoselivske to prevent attacks from the forest.That is why for the past five days, the Russians attacked Novoselivske every day and threw into the battle everything they had. Their first attempts were allegedly at least partially successful. And seems like it is true that the Ukrainians needed to step back because the Russians also opened a supporting line of attack from Kolomyichykha toward Stelmakhivka. Novoselivske is mainly supplied and reinforced from Stelmakhivka, so these attacks would only make sense if, first, the Russians saw that Ukrainian defenders were being depleted or, second, they were pushed out. Unfortunately for the Russians, after several days, the Ukrainians manages to take back the initiative and reverse the course of action. Today Russian Ministry of Defense already reported that it is the Russians in Kolomyichykha that are under attack. Other Russian sources claimed that the Ukrainians assaulted Kuzemivka several times as well, but not frequently.And low frequency, in this case, is understandable, as continuous rains turned the Kuzemivka area into the mud. Kuzemivka is in the lowlands, so all the water eventually moves to this area and makes the ground much wetter for much longer. This issue is less pronounced in the forest that is also located on the high ground. In any case, temperatures are forecasted to drop throughout Ukraine over the next week, which will likely freeze the ground and expedite the pace of fighting as mobility increases for both sides.And when it comes to the new fights, if the Ukrainians successfully consolidate control over the forest, the next big hurdle on their way is Kolomyichykha. As you can see, the settlement stretches in many directions and has many tree belts, so taking control of it is not an easy task. The Russians have a vast multitude of possibilities for how to establish their defense here. The good news is that once the Ukrainians penetrate the Kuzemivka-Kolomyichykha defense line completely, they put all Russian positions down the line in a very inconvenient position, and most importantly, the Ukrainians open access to Svatove.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.