Russian troops beginning to feel pressure of Ukrainian counterattacks - ISW

This is said in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), according to Ukrinform.

Analysts note that the arrival of Western-provided aid to the frontlines has allowed Ukrainian forces to stabilize critical areas of the front, and Ukrainian forces have conducted tactically significant and successful localized counterattacks in northern Kharkiv region and towards Kreminna (in the Donetsk-Luhansk region border area) starting in mid-May 2024.

“Ukrainian forces are not yet conducting counterattacks at the scale necessary to seize the battlefield initiative, but these tactical Ukrainian counterattacks are increasing the costs imposed on Russian forces for continuing to pursue their slow, grinding theory of advance,” ISW experts said.

As an example, ISW pointed out that Ukrainian counterattacks in northern Kharkiv region have forced Russian troops to redeploy select Russian elements away from where their centralized command formation should hypothetically be.

ISW also observed that Russia moved elements of the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade (Black Sea Fleet) and a battalion tactical group of the 9th Motorized Rifle Brigade (1st Donetsk People's Republic Army Corps) to northern Kharkiv region in mid-June while other elements of the 810th Infantry and 9th Motorized Rifle brigades remained near Krynky, Kherson region, and Toretsk, Donetsk region respectively, where they had been fighting for some time.

In addition, ISW experts also recently assessed that the Russian military command was separating and deploying elements of Russian Airborne (VDV) formations across the frontline — elements of the 106th VDV Division's 137th VDV Regiment are reportedly fighting in Kherson region, while other elements of the regiment are fighting near Siversk, Donetsk region.

“The disparate deployment of elements of the same wider formation is a strong indicator that Russian forces are beginning to feel the pressure of Ukrainian counterattacks — emphasizing that the frontline is not as static as Putin assesses it to be,” the report says.

ISW experts added that Ukraine's ability to launch more powerful and organized counterattacks, however, continues to be contingent on sustained Western military support.

As Ukrinform reported, ISW's previous report stated that the U.S. Department of Justice had released documents on several hundred accounts and domain names on social media platform X, which were used by Russian state media and the Russian FSB to manage a bot farm that spread disinformation in the United States and abroad.