A Brutal Path Forward, Village by Village

The mission for the Ukrainian unit was to take a single home, in a village that’s solely a speck on the map however was serving as a stronghold for Russian troopers.

Andriy, a veteran marine, had waited for 3 days along with his small assault staff — none of whom had seen fight earlier than — as different Ukrainian models crawled by minefields, stormed trenches and cleared a path to the farming village of Urozhaine. Finally, at some point final month, the order got here to maneuver.

They raced to a predetermined location in an armored personnel provider, and disembarked as explosions and gunfire rattled the bottom beneath their ft, Andriy and members of his unit stated. Driving out or killing the remaining Russians, they secured the home as evening fell, posting guards and reviewing the day’s techniques to see how they may enhance.

In the morning, the brand new order got here: Take one other home.

The monthslong marketing campaign to breach closely fortified Russian traces is being performed in lots of domains and in lots of types of battle, with artillery duels and drone strikes throughout the breadth of the entrance in southern Ukraine. But the engine driving the trouble are a whole bunch of small-scale assault teams, usually simply eight to 10 troopers, every tasked with attacking a single trench, tree line or home.

In this tactical method, small villages loom giant. They line paved roads, facilitating transport, and the buildings, even these ravaged by shelling, present a measure of canopy. The Russians are utilizing them as strongholds; Urozhaine, for example, was ringed by two trench traces and a maze of tunnels that allowed Russian troops to shoot in a single location, then pop up some place else.

It’s a tough strategy to combat a battle — village by village, home by home — with no assure of success. Once taken and secured, nonetheless, the surviving Russian fortifications present a base for the Ukrainians to plot their subsequent transfer ahead.

This has been the sample for Ukraine because it tries to maneuver alongside two north-south routes towards the Sea of Azov, in search of a spot to interrupt by and sever the so-called land bridge between Russia and occupied Crimea.

To the West, Ukrainian forces have been pushing on the trail that leads towards Melitopol; having secured the important thing village of Robotyne, they had been combating fiercely this week on the village of Verbove, the following step within the advance. On Friday, the Ukrainian army stated it had pushed three and a half miles past Robotyne, and John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesman, stated Ukraine had made “notable progress” within the previous 72 hours.

Urozhaine lies on an route farther east, alongside a small rural street that results in Mariupol on the southern coast.

The battle over the village would final 9 days, with the Russians lastly retreating on Aug. 19 below a hail of Ukrainian artillery fireplace. It was a small however vital step. As with Robotyne, securing it meant Ukraine’s forces had damaged by the Russians’ first layer of defenses. Just as importantly, they’ve now held it for 2 weeks.

There are nonetheless some 60 miles of laborious street forward for the Ukrainians earlier than they’ll attain the coast, and a minimum of another closely fortified Russian defensive position of their approach. The Russians are resisting fiercely, protected by entrenched positions, minefields and air superiority. The marines count on the combat to be bloody and sluggish.

“Russians have more artillery, more tanks, more drones, and more people,” stated a veteran marine named Denis. “And they also fortify very well — whenever they get to somewhere — be it a settlement, a forest belt, or just a field.”

The Ukrainians allowed a staff from The New York Times to go to marines combating on the street to Mariupol on a number of events over two weeks in August, on the situation that the journalists not reveal exact places, troopers’ full names and ranks, and sure operational particulars.

Daily success is measured in yards fairly than miles. But dozens of those assaults have been raging every day for weeks and, taken collectively, they’re including as much as positive factors that Ukraine says will pose rising issues for overstretched Russian forces.

In greater than a dozen interviews in current days, troops engaged in fight voiced nice confidence that they’ll break the Russian traces.

“After the first and the second lines there will be the straight way toward the sea, no more fortifications,” stated Maksym, one other veteran marine who fought in Urozhaine. “We will move like rockets.”

The marines are combating on a line that runs south alongside the T0158, a rural street that winds its approach by the Mokri Yali River Valley, the place Ukrainians have retaken a sequence of villages since launching their counteroffensive in June. The subsequent main assault goal is Staromlynivka, about 12 miles from the place the marketing campaign started.

The Russians are racing in reinforcements to attempt to cease the advance, Ukrainian troopers stated.

Their description of the battle at Urozhaine was supported by unedited Ukrainian drone footage seen by The Times. Key particulars additionally corresponded with accounts posted on social media by Russian troopers and bloggers.

Before attacking Russians in a village, Ukrainians combat to regulate the elevated positions on the flanks, hoping to make the Russian positions untenable and restrict the house-to-house combating.

Each settlement presents most of the similar challenges, so the marines map out every assault and drill as a lot as they’ll earlier than launching an assault.

“The most important thing is to hold the first street,” Denis stated. “Then we send an additional drone that looks at each building. Our soldiers are divided into two groups: the fire group and the maneuver group. The fire group shoots Russians hiding on different floors of the building and then the maneuver group clears it. This is how we move house after house.”

If the assault fails, he stated, they name in artillery strikes and destroy the home.

The Russians are additionally adapting, the marines stated, together with utilizing new techniques to make the already treacherous minefields much more deadly.

They will lace a pasture crammed with mines with a flammable agent, for example. Once the Ukrainians get to work clearing a gap, the Russians will drop a grenade from a drone, igniting a sea of fireside and explosions.

The mining makes management over paved roads important; they’re the most secure routes as a result of mines are simpler to identify and take away. The Russians know this and have arrange defenses alongside the T0158, with concrete bunkers for machine gunners. Russian drones maintain the roads below fixed surveillance.

As Denis spoke just a few miles from the road of contact, a unit was training an assault on a home. There isn’t any scarcity of battered buildings to run such drills, so that they transfer places usually.

But Russian drones picked up the gathering of troopers and fired rockets at them. The troopers heard the whistle of the incoming rockets and had seconds to dive for canopy. They scattered because the Russians unleashed one other salvo. A hail of rockets crashed across the marines, however nobody was injured.

Just a few days later, one other group was making ready for his or her subsequent assault alongside the street to Mariupol. They had been amongst a current inflow of Marines who had accomplished coaching in Britain however had but to expertise fight.

A coach named Vasyl, 53, was operating the drills, barking orders as the brand new troopers fired dwell rounds and rocket-propelled grenades for the primary time. Time is a luxurious they don’t have as battles rage, he stated, “so we do our best to get them ready as soon as possible.”

A key a part of forming a profitable assault unit, the troopers stated, was discovering essentially the most motivated recruits keen to race right into a cauldron of destruction.

Like different Ukrainian outfits, the marines are composed of a mixture of profession fighters, volunteers and mobilized conscripts. About 70 p.c come from the native space — together with the occupied metropolis of Mariupol — and troopers consider that provides them a definite benefit over an enemy they view as combating for a paycheck, and holding positions out of concern of punishment for retreating.

As skilled troopers, Andriy and Maksym, each 35, guided the brand new recruits.

“Of course we had some losses, not within our platoon, but within the brigade,” Maksym stated. “It’s war, you know.”

Still, the marines achieved their goal in Urozhaine and had been one small step nearer to the ocean.

“It’s also important for self-confidence and motivation,” Maksym stated. “Many of the guys were new, it was their first fight. And now they know how it is.”

Gaëlle Girbes and Dimitry Yatsenko contributed reporting from the entrance line.