Day 340: January 29Today a lot of important changes happened in the Vuhledar area. Here, the Russians have been tightly holding onto the settlement that allowed them to assault Vuhledar with ease, but the latest reports suggest that the Russian have finally lost control over it and are rapidly trying to adjust to the conditions by shifting their focus completely to another direction.Last time I told you that the Ukrainians slowly broke the momentum of the Russian advance by firing at Russian positions in the two hamlets from tanks, mortars, and artillery. As a result, the Ukrainians successfully pushed the Russians from the southern positions and conducted a counterattack on the eastern positions, reestablishing control over half of the hamlet. Positional fights immobilized the Russians even more, and as in this case, time works against the Russians, they tried to restore control over the eastern hamlet by any means. The loss of this area would mean that the Russians would basically need to start their operation from scratch.The Ukrainians understand this too, which is why they have been reinforcing this group and increasing the intensity of their counterattacks. Yesterday, the Ukrainians made a final heavy counterattack and pushed the Russians away from this hamlet. Interestingly, Russian sources started circulating footage of Ukrainian prisoners of war that they allegedly took the same day in the same region by initiating a breakthrough with their tanks. However, a lot of sources indicate that this video was recorded when the Russians just entered it five days ago. Russian sources also decreased their coverage of this region over the last two days and did not elaborate on any breakthrough and its favorable implications. Instead, the reports suggest that the fights are largely positional. Importantly, one of the freshest reports noted that the only viable direction for the Russians is the southern, not eastern, which supports the conclusion that the Ukrainians here successfully pushed the Russians away.And when it comes to the southern part of Vuhledar that the Russians are reportedly prioritizing, it is indeed less protected than the eastern part. Due to the structure of the town, Ukrainian defense in the southern and western parts of the town is inherently weaker. Ukrainian sources suggest that the Russians switched to shelling this town. And because using regular artillery was not even nearly enough to support the on-the-ground operation, the Russians were also engaging thermobaric artillery and even aviation. In fact, over the last five days, Russian losses in aircraft skyrocketed and reached 6 fighter jets and 7 helicopters. In comparison, before the Russians assaulted Vuhledar, it took the Ukrainians 4 weeks to shoot down the same number of helicopters and more than 6 weeks to shoot down the same number of fighter jets. And even though the numbers are concerning the whole front, Russian losses in aviation only skyrocketed from the day the Russians started storming Vuhledar.The Russians have also opened two more lines of attack. One from the farms towards the industrial area and another towards Prechystivka. Such actions further emphasize that the Russians are shifting their focus to the southern and western parts of the town, supporting the evaluation that the Russians were pushed away from the eastern positions. The attack on Prechystivka is also likely an attempt to stretch Ukrainian forces and make them allocate troops to regions other than Vuhledar.