Day 347: February 05As many of you noticed, the more you go to the north of the Luhansk front, the quieter is the front line: the Kreminna area has been very active, with intense fights happening every day; the Svatove area sporadically had intense waves of engagements around Kuzemivka; while the Kupiansk area had gradually become dormant. The situation started to change a few days ago because the Russians needed to prepare for their offensive operation.A sudden launch of an offensive operation in a dormant area can lead to a lot of problems and miscalculations. For these reasons, the Russians had to increase the number of engagements in this area to test the current defense capabilities of the Ukrainians, their levels of supplies and support, and, most importantly, eliminate any grey zones between permanent Russian and Ukrainian positions. That is why several days ago, the Russians carried out a short combat reconnaissance near Dvorichne. The Ukrainians took this assault as a sign that the Russians were almost ready to start, and, as noted by various Russian sources, the Ukrainians quickly brought their forces to the highest level of combat readiness. Yesterday, the Russians conducted a more intense attack and assaulted Dvorichne and Hrianykivka. Russian sources reported that the Ukrainians had sent several reconnaissance and sabotage groups to gather intelligence about the upcoming waves of attacks. It looks like the Russians plan to increase the intensity of their attacks rapidly because the Ukrainians moved a portion of their reserves, namely half a hundred pieces of equipment and half a thousand troops, from the southern part of the Kharkiv region closer to Kupiansk to be able to react to the situation faster. Today some Russian sources reported that they have breached Ukrainian defense and entered the western part of Dvorichne while fighting in Hrianykivka continues, however, this is only partially true. The Ukrainians moved to their main defense line along the railways, which, technically speaking, is indeed in the western part of the settlement, but since it is their main defense line, which the Russians did not manage to breach during all their previous offensive actions, the claims that the defense has been breached are premature. The goal of the Russians is to establish control over the forest and get as close to Kupiansk as possible by the end of the next week because this is when they plan to start their offensive operation. The next logical step would be the activation of the front line around Kyslivka. The Ukrainians understand this, and they have increased their sabotage and reconnaissance activities here significantly. Russian sources reported that the Ukrainians are actively engaging various drones for surveillance.Russian sources also reported that there are multiple indicators that small Ukrainian groups of up to 4 troops have entered Russia-controlled areas near Kyslivka, Volodymyrivka, Berestove, Kuzemivka, and Raihorodka. These groups are not only gathering intelligence but also laying mines. This is very good news because if the Russians commit to a large assault and run into several mines, this would introduce significant uncertainty in their plans, and they might be forced to abort the mission, pull back and choose another axis of advance. All of this takes away their valuable time, and they don’t have a lot of time until the rainy season returns to Ukraine.In the meantime, the Ukrainians have already received the first Leopard tanks. The Ukrainian General Staff reported today that they are starting training already tomorrow. If more tanks start coming in, the Ukrainians may be ready to operate these tanks on the battlefield already in April.