31 Jan: FINAL CHAPTER: Last Road Cut. PERIMETER BREACHED. | War in Ukraine Explained

Here, the most important updates come from the Velyka Novosilka direction.

Here, the battle for Velyka Novosilka reached a critical turning point as Russian forces pushed forward, leveraging their numerical superiority and high-ground advantage. With the last remaining Ukrainian supply route under attack and relentless assaults underway, the fate of Velyka Novosilka was at stake.

After months of intense fighting, the Russian forces continued their offensive effort to take control of Velyka Novosilka. Despite being relatively small, Velyka Novosilka is still the largest town in forty kilometers of fields and minor settlements, resulting in it being a key logistical node due to the many hardened roads running through it. This makes Velyka Novosilka a vital logistics hub to supply and sustain any future operations for either side.

To capture the town, Russians are avoiding direct assaults and urban combat by instead attempting to cut off key Ukrainian logistics routes leading into Velyka Novosilka. Russian forces already held physical control of two out of three logistics roads, leaving the Ukrainian garrison with only the road in the west running through Vremivka. As cutting off this road would allow the Russian forces to cut off all supplies and reinforcements to the Ukrainian garrison in the town, Vremivka became the main focus point of the Russian offensive.