Brief Frontline Report – May 25, 2025
Control of Heights Near Romanovka – Another Tactical Victory for the Russian Army. Report by Marat Khairullin with illustrations by Mikhail Popov.
As we have already reported, another tactically important settlement—Romanovka—has been liberated.
This small village has only 50 inhabitants, but its location provides the Russian Armed Forces with an advantage for further combat operations:
1. The settlement is crossed by the N-20 highway, which connects the combat zone to the N-32 Konstantinovka-Pokrovsk lateral route.
2. The village is situated on a watershed ridge. To the west lies the Kalinovka River, while to the east is the Sukhaya Balka ravine. The N-20 highway runs along the ridge of the watershed. Romanovka is located at an elevation of 180 meters—practically the highest point of the watershed (800 meters to the east, the elevation reaches 184.4 meters).
East of the village lies the Sukhaya Balka ravine, on the opposite side of which are the settlements of Pavlovka and Shcherbinovka. This is a well-fortified enemy area that our units have been assaulting for the past two months from the Leonidovka-Dzerzhinsk (Toretsk) direction.
Control of the heights near Romanovka effectively allows our artillery to strike the rear of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' fortified area in Petrovka-Shcherbinovka.
3. To the north (with a 30-meter drop in elevation), 4 km away, lies the Ukrainian Armed Forces' fortified area of Aleksandro-Kalinovo to Yablonovka, which anchors its left flank on the Kleban-Byk Reservoir. This area is part of the Novoalekseevka–Yablonovka defensive line (left flank), stretching along the Bychok River and covering the N-32 lateral route.
The positions in Romanovka allow Russian artillery to control the Aleksandro-Kalinovo area and provide fire support to our assault groups.
4. To the west (2 km from Romanovka), in the lowland of the Kalinovka River (35 meters below) lies the settlement of Zarya. Through converging attacks from Aleksandropol and Romanovka, our forces have the opportunity to encircle a significant group of units from the Ukrainian 109th Territorial Defense Brigade, which is defending the Ignatovka–Staraya Nikolaevka area.
The elimination of this "pocket" will secure the rear of our units operating in the direction of Shcherbinovka and Aleksandro-Kalinovo.
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The Russian Armed Forces continue active operations to establish a buffer zone.
Reports indicate that, under pressure from our army, the enemy has begun withdrawing its units from Belovody, a settlement that covers the strategically important Yablonovka–Yunakovka lateral route in the combat zone. The enemy used this defensive area to block access to the watershed heights, on the eastern slopes of which lies the settlement of Yunakovka. The advance of our troops to these heights will significantly worsen the situation for the Ukrainian forces defending the Yunakovka area.
We await reports on the clearing and complete liberation of the village of Belovody.
To our warriors—good luck, success, and victory!
Thank you for the sitrep! Always appreciated!
where is a good front line map of what Russia has gained control of all Ukraine?