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Northwest DPR; Area of Seversk - Slavyansk - Konstantinovka. Yellow line with red dots: Line of Combat Contact back on October 10th, 2025.
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Slavyansk Direction; area of Seversk to Raigorodok. Yellow dashed and dotted line=Line of Combat Contact back on November 24th, 2025. The blue line with blue arches is the "1st Slavyansk-Konstantinovka defensive line.”
Message from the Russian Ministry of Defense: "Units of the 'South' Group have liberated the settlement of Yurkovka, 10 kilometers from Slavyansk. After thorough reconnaissance, a powerful fire strike was delivered against the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which allowed assault groups of the 88th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade to break through the defense and seize the settlement."
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Building on the success following the liberation of the settlement of Rai-Aleksandrovka, units of the "South" Group liberated the settlement of Yurkovka (48°46′33″ N 37°47′56″ E, population 34 in 2001). The Yurkovka defense area is an element of the Orekhovatka - Nikanorovka - Vasyutinskoe - Malinovka defensive hub, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces use to protect access to the eastern quarters of the city of Kramatorsk. Yurkovka, like the entire defensive hub, is located on the right bank of the Seversky Donets-Donbas canal, and its defense is built with consideration of the terrain's features. From the eastern outskirts of the city of Kramatorsk (the Belenkoe district area), two natural terrain folds radiate toward the Orekhovatka and Malinovka areas: "Partizanskaya Gora" ("Partisan Mountain") and "Zmeinaya Gora" ("Snake Mountain"). These are chalk hills along the banks of the Chagar and Kruglikov Yar ravines.
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The left flank of this defensive hub is Orekhovatka - Nikanorovka. In this sector, the area of the settlement of Orekhovatka is the key to the northern envelopment of the hub. The Rai-Aleksandrovka - Yurkovka bridgehead allows Russian assault groups, through outflanking maneuvers, to isolate the settlement of Orekhovatka and destroy the enemy's defense there. Such a "wedge," driven deep into the enemy's defense in this sector, will allow operations both to the north (Nikolaevka) and to the south (Nikanorovka).
The right flank — Vasyutinskoe — is covered from the south by the Bely Yar ravine defense area, which is equipped on the heights of the chalk hills of the "Kramatorsky" landscape park and holds back the advance of Russian units from the Markovo - Fedorovka bridgehead.
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I circled the Kramatorsky Landscape Park in orange*
Following the liberation of the settlement of Tikhonovka (June 1, 2026), Russian assault troops are advancing along the C051417 road toward Vasyutinskoe, breaking through the enemy's defense with a frontal assault and covering their right flank against enemy counterattacks from the settlement of Malinovka. Malinovka is an important area in the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defense and is holding back the advance of Russian assault troops. Which defense area will be destroyed first — Malinovka or Vasyutinskoe — we will soon find out. It depends on the tactical situation and the decision of the Russian operational command. After the elimination of the enemy's defense in the settlements of Malinovka and Vasyutinskoe, the destruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defensive hub of Orekhovatka - Nikanorovka - Vasyutinskoe - Malinovka will become a matter of the near future. And this means reaching the city of Kramatorsk — the second largest hub of the agglomeration after the city of Slavyansk.
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Another "thorn" in the side of Russian units advancing toward Kramatorsk from the southeast will be the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defensive hub of Belokuzminovka. Here, the Russian grouping has prepared a bridgehead at Markovo - Klinovoe - Mayskoe. But, most likely, this "card" will be "played" after the liberation of the city of Konstantinovka and the elimination of the Verolyubovka - Stenki salient.
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