🧵 Frontline Sentinel – Hulyaipole, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, 04/04/2026

🇷🇺🇺🇦Russian and Ukrainian advances:

Ukrainian forces continue their counteroffensive operation that began on February 5, aimed at eliminating the Russian right flank to Orikhiv and capturing the village of Uspenivka. Despite hitting much more fortified positions with higher concentrations of Russian infantry, the Ukrainians were able to continue advancing, breaking further south through Verbove and Vyshneve, and forcing a Russian withdrawal from the salient in the area of Danylivka and Yehorivka. However, since then, Russian forces have ramped up their own counterattacks aimed at regaining the initiative and carried out a series of mechanised assaults and small infantry attacks, which have seen them retake some positions around Zlahoda, Solodke, Novohryhorivka, and Novomykolaivka, and expand the grey-zone significantly. Additionally, despite issues with logistics along the Velyka Novosilka – Hulyaipole Road and the significant Ukrainian progress, the Russians have retained their ability to continue advancing west of Hulyaipole, and managed to make new advances near Zaliznychne, Huliaipilske, Myrne, Hirke, Staroukrainka, and Kosivtseve.

📍Mapped territorial changes:

Both Suriyak Maps and Deepstate have acknowledged Russian advances west of Hulyaipole, although Deepstate still claims that large parts of this sector remains in an infiltration zone. Suriyak shows much larger Russian progress around Ternuvate, in line with some Russian sources. Geolocations show Russian soldiers raising flags in the village of Boikove, however Pro-Ukrainian source Playfra states that this is a one-time flagging operation, with the Russian soldiers withdrawing right afterwards. Deepstate also shows increased infiltration zones in favour of Ukraine around Kalynivske and Berezove, while Suriyak Maps marked some larger Ukrainian advances here some time ago. The general consensus is that Ukrainian forces are making progress from the north where the Russians have begun counterattacking, while the Russians are making progress west of Hulyaipole.

📚Open source information:

With the end of the information embargo by the Ukrainian side on their counteroffensive, several more videos have appeared in recent days confirming additional Ukrainian movements. In particular, Ukrainian forces were spotted raiding Russian positions in Novohryhorivka and near Novoivanivka, however the former ended in failure following Russian counterattacks. Other videos show Russian infiltrations towards Ternuvate and Boikove, although based on the available information, no consolidation has occurred in most of these areas. Sentinel satellite imagery suggests a decrease in shelling of the entire front following the most active stage of the counteroffensive. This decrease in shelling can also be attributed to a change in tactics towards deeper infiltrations behind enemy lines by either side, rather than more static, stable, and positional lines.



🎯Strategic value: This sector of the frontline remains crucial to both sides. On the one hand, Russian forces need to capture the tactical heights around the towns of Zaliznychne and Ternuvate in order to begin their offensive aimed at outflanking Orikhiv from the north. On the other hand, Ukrainian forces need to hold positions here to prevent the Russian advance, and need to maintain control over areas north of Verbove and Vyshneve to prevent another Russian advance to Pokrovs’ke, which would facilitate further movements deeper into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and towards Novomykolaivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.