Ukraine Surges, Takes Berezove, Threatens Uspenivka, As Russians Reel

At this point in Ukraine's counteroffensive, two months since it began with surprise assaults, the success of Ukrainian forces is about both its own success - and - the failure of the reeling Russians to respond effectively. 

The taking of Berezove in Dnipropetrovsk oblast signals that Russian troops have been almost completely driven from that province, a significant achievement. But it is the threat to Uspenivka that may be most telling. That is because the town is the forward headquarters of the Kremlin's 36th Combined Arms Army, one of only a few major military groups charged with leading the war against Ukraine. That the Russians located their HQ there suggests they not only thought it was safe, but that there was no chance it would ever be threatened. That, in fact, the Ukrainians are in position to take it - along with all the staff, supplies, intelligence, electronics and other assets a forward HQ possesses - means that the Russians are struggling to defend what they have taken. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

Ukraine's 95th Air Assault Brigade have taken full control of Berezove in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The village is one of the last remaining Russia held in the oblast, a region Moscow has since been nearly entirely pushed out of. 100 Km away, nearly two months after Russia’s battlefield communications collapsed, Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the southeast to take advantage of the chaos, Ukrainian forces are closing in on their main objective in the area: the village of Uspenivka, the front-line base of the Russian 36th Combined Arms Army. Led by the 95th Brigade, the battlegroup swept through the no-man’s-land west of Uspenivka, clearing out potentially hundreds of Russian infantry. 

Nearly two months after Russia’s battlefield communications collapsed, and Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the southeast to take advantage of the chaos, Ukrainian forces are closing in on their main objective in the area: the village of Uspenivka, the front-line base of the Russian 36th Combined Arms Army, one of two field armies aimed like daggers at the free city of Zaporizhzhia, 50 miles to the west. When Elon Musk’s Starlink abruptly bricked Russia’s thousands of smuggled and stolen satellite terminals in early February, grounding many Russian drones and blinding many Russian headquarters, Ukrainian forces swiftly organized two battlegroups—and counterattacked. In the southern sector of the southeastern front, a battlegroup composed of elite assault units backed by mechanized units pushed back against Russian regiments clinging to the town of Huliaipole. The counterattack didn’t move the no-man’s-land very much, but it did blunt the Russians’ momentum toward Zaporizhzhia. A second battlegroup made up of air assault, assault and mechanized units enjoyed greater success in the northern sector of the southeastern front. Led by the 95th Air Assault Brigade, the battlegroup swept through the no-man’s-land west of Uspenivka, clearing out potentially hundreds of Russian infantry.

Units of the 95th have taken full control of Berezove in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the Air Assault Forces reported on 26 March. The village is one of the last remaining settlements Russia held in the oblast — a region Moscow only entered for the first time in August 2025 and has since been nearly entirely pushed out of.

 

Ukraine's southern campaign has reversed more territory than Russia managed to seize in the preceding months, marking the first time since the Kursk operation in 2024 that Ukrainian forces reclaimed more ground in a month than Russia captured in the same period. Russia entered the region for the first time in August 2025 — and Ukraine has now reversed nearly all of those gains.