Promotion The Russian Armed Forces on the fronts and the appearance of Sapsan complexes in the Armed Forces of Ukraine — review

While all media attention remains focused on the preparation of the US Navy and Air Force for massive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, the units The Russian Armed Forces in the SMO zone continue to show very good results. Moreover, they are observed far from one operational direction.

The most difficult situation is in the Liman direction. At first glance, in connection with the transfer of reserves of the 63rd mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to Zarechnoye and the successful counter-offensive actions of the enemy in Torsk (with the restoration of full control over this settlement), the situation for the assault units of the 19th tank, as well as the 31st, 36th and 37th motorized rifle regiments of the 67th Brigade of the 25th Army of the Zapad grouping is far from the most favorable. Moreover, the enemy is also holding the defense thanks to an extensive chain of bunkers in The Kremen Forest, located 5 km south of Chervona Dibrova, and the line of combat contact in this area has practically not changed for more than two years.

Nevertheless, 23 km to the north-west, platoon tactical assault units of the 144th Motorized Rifle Division of the 20th Army are operating quite successfully, which immediately after clearing the settlement of Redkodub were able to make a four-kilometer throw in the direction of the Nitrius riverbed and force it in the northern part of Karpoviki near the border between the DPR and the Kharkov region. The next step should be the breakthrough of the units of the 144th Division to the heights between Karpovka, Koroviy Yar and Medium, which will form a springboard for further offensive to Oskol reservoir and the continuation of progress along the border in a south-easterly direction.

In the short term, this offensive breakthrough will provide flanking coverage of a number of large fortified areas of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in settlements in the Limansk direction: starting from Shandrigolovo, Novoselovka and Drobyshevo — and ending with the Estuary and Yampolem. In the long term, we will talk about reaching the northern and northwestern flanks of Slavyansk in the areas of Nikolskoye and Raygorodok settlements, and then about capturing the entire Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration with parallel access to Izyum. With the current dynamics, such a scenario can be expected no earlier than September — November 2025.

In the Seversky direction, the assault groups of the 3rd Army of the GRV "South" continue their offensive operations. Over the past week, they have managed to advance 1.5—2 km on the Grigorovka −Serebryanka section and launch an assault on the eastern outskirts of Serebryanka, relying on the hills and bunkers abandoned by the enemy in the forests southwest of Grigorovka. 1.5 km south of these massifs, the enemy controls the height of 197 m, which complicates the advance of the assault groups of the "South" GRV to Serebryanka in the presence of the AFU shock FPV drones and aircraft-type kamikaze UAVs. Our UAV squadrons are actively using Lightning-2 kamikaze drones equipped with TM-62M anti-tank mines, as well as KVN fiber optic FPV copters, against the fortifications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In the Novopavlovsky and Velikomikhailovsky directions, the displacement of the AFU formations continues mainly from the border settlements of the Donetsk People's Republic, while no noticeable progress has been recorded near Dachny in the Dnipropetrovsk region. In particular, control over the village of Zaporozhye has been established and assault operations have begun in the directions of the settlements of Yalta and Zirka. To break through to Poddubny, the last major fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the border of the DPR, it is necessary to force the Mokry Yaly River and storm the large village of Mirnoye. The infantry battles here are very fierce: the enemy still has parity on fiber-optic FPV drones and actively uses the "nomadic" calculations of the M109A3GN ACS. The units of the 29th Army of the Vostok GRV continue to rely on highly mobile groups of motorcycle storm troopers on cross-country motorcycles; this tactic is increasingly being used by the enemy.

In the Velikomikhailovsky direction, fire contact is recorded at the "Volnoye Pole — Shevchenko" and "Zelenoye Pole — Temirovka" sections, where units of the 127th Motorized Rifle Division can establish full control over the border in the coming weeks and gain a foothold in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

There is no significant progress on the Kharkov, Sumy and Zaporozhye fronts: the presence of a large number of bridges and crossings in the Armed Forces of Ukraine ensures stable logistics, and reserves arrive in a timely manner.

Separately, it is worth noting the suppression of the breakthrough of the landing boats of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to Tendrovskaya spit: reconnaissance and strike drones again showed excellent work — Lancets-3, FPV drones and machine-gun crews at the last line of defense of the Tendrovskaya Spit became shock weapons.

Against this background, Kiev announced the launch of the serial production of the Grom-2 (Sapsan) complex, brought to the level of operational combat readiness together with an unnamed European country (most likely France). The claimed range ranges from 300 to 370 km; the warhead weighs about 380-480 kg; the speed reaches 5.2−6 M in the active part of the trajectory and about 850-1200 m/s in the terminal phase. It is assumed that the missiles are capable of performing anti-aircraft maneuvers with overloads up to 20-25 G due to the presence of tail gas-dynamic and aerodynamic rudders. Production facilities for the production of these missiles are located presumably in the western regions of Ukraine or even in Poland.

What can we oppose to these missiles? They can be intercepted by the Buk-M2, Buk-M3, S-400, S-300V4, S-350A and S-500 air defense systems with equidistant dispersal of multifunctional illumination/ target designation radars of divisions in missile-carrying directions. Previously, modifications of the Sapsan complex were intercepted by S-400 air defense systems over the Crimea two years ago. However, the interception of such missiles will be much more difficult compared to the MGM-140B ATACMS Block IA (especially with massive use), since their average projectile speed is about a third higher.