Brief Frontline Report – May 5th, 2026
Summary by Marat Khairullin and Mikhail Popov
A few words about the current moment.
Accurate information about the course of combat operations is available only to military commanders (insofar as it concerns them). We can observe, analyze our observations, and make assumptions. So far, up to today, neither we nor our colleagues (among responsible experts and military correspondents) have made errors in analyzing the situation, and for the most part, our analytical material has landed close to the "bullseye."
Readers are concerned about the "temporary lull." The public became accustomed to the rapid advance of Russian units during 2025, when 2-3 settlements were liberated per day, and now they are worried: I must ask, why? Remember:
1. Combat work consists not only of offensive actions. Combat work is concentrated on the main task: the destruction of enemy personnel, equipment, and weaponry. Forcing him to cease resistance. Then, and only then, the politicians step in.
2. Based on point 1, it becomes clear that the capture of territory and settlements is not the main goal.
They are of interest only as bridgeheads and lines that provide an operational-tactical advantage over the enemy, places where you can consolidate well and even allow the enemy to counterattack, because in the repulsion of that counterattack, he will be destroyed. Also, they matter as pockets of resistance where the enemy has already concentrated his forces, making it "convenient" to destroy him there.
3. A large number of settlements and large areas of territory taken under control in a short period of time require additional expenditure of forces: Holding forces. Forces to ensure control over the rear. Creation of a transport network for troop supply and organization of its security. Bringing up rear units, their deployment, and support for their activities.
Based on these conditions, one can understand the nature of our troops' actions: the main task now is the liberation of Russian Federation territories temporarily occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces: the Donetsk People's Republic, Zaporozhye Oblast, and Kherson Oblast. The creation of a buffer zone in areas of territory adjacent to the state border. Inflicting maximum damage on enemy military formations. These are operational goals. The strategic goals: denazification and demilitarization, are achieved both through operational-strategic military actions and through political methods based on military results.
For example, a deep advance into the depth of enemy territory is necessary to force him to maneuver forces from other directions. As a rule, when planning such actions, the command proceeds (at minimum) from two linked scenarios:
a) The enemy will not be able to respond quickly, and the breakthrough units will consolidate in the sector, form a bridgehead, and fill it with forces and assets for further development.
b) The enemy will be able to eventually organize a mobile defense, execute the maneuver of forces and assets, and stop the advancing units. In this case, a strike is delivered against other defense sectors weakened after units have been removed from them to respond to the bridgehead created elsewhere.
This is what happened in last summer, when a breakthrough was executed in the Krasnoarmeysk sector toward the Zolotoy Kolodez - Kucherov Yar area.
The paratroopers acted similarly on the western sector of the Zaporozhye direction, reaching the line of the Konka River on the Primorskoe - Zaporozhets line.
It is clear that the conclusion about an intention to storm the suburbs of the city of Zaporozhye from a single direction (from the south) could only have arisen among people who do not understand basic matters of military science. This was a diversionary maneuver to reach the tactical depth of the sector (perfectly within the tactics of the Airborne Forces) to draw enemy forces and assets onto themselves and to support operations on other sectors and directions. Having completed the task, they withdrew to their positions, simultaneously luring the enemy onto minefields, concentrated fire zones, and fire pockets.
It must be understood that the Russian Armed Forces are conducting combat operations with a limited allocation of forces (this is dictated by the strategic concept), therefore they are not executing wide and deep envelopments and are not forming massive "cauldrons" for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Such actions require the commitment of large forces and assets. The main tactic is the formation of operational-tactical salients, splitting them into sectors, and the phased destruction of enemy groups defending these areas. With the widespread use of tactical flanking envelopments, which force the enemy to withdraw in order to straighten the line of contact.
In directions and sectors where territory is to be liberated from occupiers, constant, unrecognized, difficult work is being carried out. And after units have completed preparatory actions, prepared bridgeheads, and reached their initial lines, a leap forward occurs, with the liberation of the settlement on the basis of which the enemy built a defense area.
Currently, the Russian Armed Forces have reached Ukrainian Armed Forces defensive hubs that the enemy has been preparing for a decade. One such sector is the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration.
With its destruction, Ukraine will be dealt a strategic defeat, both militarily and politically. To the north of this agglomeration, on the approaches to the city of Slavyansk, intense fighting is underway on the Krivaya Luka - Rai-Aleksandrovka - Yurkovka line.
The remnants of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' first defensive line, which blocked access to the watershed ridge of the Bakhmutka and Kazennyi Torets rivers along which the bed of the artificial engineering barrier, the Seversky Donets-Donbas canal, is laid, are being destroyed. Behind this line lie the enemy's cut-off positions, covering access to the second defensive line, which runs directly through the suburbs of the agglomeration's settlements. During the fighting on May 4 and 5, at the junction of the two Russian Armed Forces army groups — "West" and "South" — Russian assault units advanced toward the enemy's nodal defense areas: the settlements of Krivaya Luka (from the settlements of Zakatnoe and Kaleniki) and Rai-Aleksandrovka, toward which they have significantly advanced along the Kaleniki - Rai-Aleksandrovka road.
On another direction, they are ensuring the buffer zone. Good progress has been made on the western sector of the Sumy direction, on both flanks of the Yunakovka - Miropole - Ryasnoe sector.
The sector that the enemy used during the invasion of Kursk Oblast is well prepared operationally. With a developed road network, a large number of rivers that provide cover for the flanks of defense sectors. An echeloned defense relying on folds in the terrain and artificial engineering structures. The enemy is forced to maintain a large number of formations, equipment, and weaponry here. And the Russian Armed Forces, by advancing deeper into Ukrainian territory, are forcing the Ukrainian command to allocate additional forces to this direction, forces that the Ukrainian Armed Forces already lack.
Based on indirect signs and events on the political front, the impression is forming that it will be hot this summer!
Success to our warriors!
Victory will be ours!
Many thanks to Marat and Colonel Popov. Your sitrep is the best public source of information on the military situation in Ukraine. It's part of my daily reads.
😀 😃 Big Thanks! 😃 😀