OSINT analyst Def Mon, whose posts and maps we rely on when compiling our sitreps, reports that in recent days he has found almost no significant information on changes in the frontline.
On Mar. 22, the city of Zaporizhzhia was hit. Spokesman of the Air Force Command of the AFU Yuriy Ihnat assumes that a 9K515 Tornado-S long-range MLRS was used. As a result of the strike on residential buildings, 34 people were injured, including three children. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video from the scene on his Twitter account.
On the night of Mar. 22, 21 Shahed kamikaze drones were launched; 16 of them were claimed to have been shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces. Part of the drones hit a civilian object in the Kyiv region; at the moment, 3 people are known to have been killed, and 7 more wounded.
Yevgeny Prigozhin [Russian oligarch, the confidant of Vladimir Putin and owner of the Wagner Group], who recently spoke of grandiose plans to recruit 30,000 people into the Wagner Group by mid-May, unexpectedly turned to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu again asking for help in the Bakhmut direction. He stated that Wagner Group mercenaries control more than 70% of Bakhmut, but they fear that the flanks of the main pro-Russian group of troops might be cut off during the counteroffensive of the AFU planned for late March — early April. Thus, without the support of the RuAF, the situation for mercenaries could become too dangerous.
The situation in Bakhmut remains extremely dangerous for the AFU: Russian forces have partially occupied the southern outskirts of the town, where the heaviest fighting is taking place. The offensive continues in the northwestern part of the town, but Bakhmut is still holding out.
Over the past week, everything was relatively quiet at the front without significant advances. OSINT analyst Def Mon, relying in his analysis on the reports of the General Staff of the AFU, notes the absence of changes on the frontline.
The AFU managed to relatively stabilize the frontline around Bakhmut with the help of counterattacks: the advance of pro-Russian forces capturing small settlements around the town stopped. There was a video showing trench fighting between Ukrainian servicemen and pro-Russian soldiers geolocated in the area of Khromove. Wagner Group mercenaries were trying to dislodge AFU soldiers from their trenches in order to continue the offensive on Khromove and close the encirclement of Bakhmut. Despite the fact that close-range shooting was going on around, a mercenary commander moved around the trenches at full height. An episode of friendly fire by mercenaries also testifies to the poor preparation of pro-Russian assault infantry: two...
Wagner Group mercenaries announced the capture of the settlement of Zaliznianske to the northwest of Bakhmut. Let us recall that the line of contact has been passing near Zaliznianske for quite a long time.
In the Kupiansk direction, Russian forces advanced in the area of the settlement of Hrianykivka. Apparently, their task here is to destroy the crossing of the AFU across the Oskil River near Kupiansk and advance further south along the river, capturing nearby territories.
The Bakhmut direction is still the one where the fiercest fighting is going on of the entire line of contact. There were two videos by the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the AFU showing Ukrainian IFVs firing at the enemy in a single-family residential neighborhood in the south of Bakhmut.