Ukrainian Military Conducted A Series Of Successful Counterattacks
- 13.02.2026, 10:22
This was facilitated by the Starlink lockdown.
The Ukrainian military has carried out local counterattacks near the administrative border of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya regions. At the same time, we are not talking about a large-scale counteroffensive, which was previously announced by the Russians.
These counterattacks were facilitated by the blocking of Starlink terminals for the Russian occupiers. This is according to a new report by the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War.
The images, which appeared online on February 12, show the Russians striking Ukrainian positions east of the Gaichur River, southeast of Dobropillya and north of Varvarovka (both settlements are north of Gulyaypol). According to experts, this indicates that the AFU controlled this territory earlier. At the same time, local counterattacks are now being carried out to connect the frontline positions with each other.
Before this, the Russians claimed to be advancing, declaring the capture of positions west of the Ukrainian positions. ISW believes the Russian Armed Forces ignored Ukrainian positions during the infiltration to claim greater successes than they actually had.
The Russians first announced Ukrainian counterattacks on February 9. At first, Russian military corridors reported a large-scale counteroffensive, but later Ukrainian sources and some other military corridors claimed a localized attack.
At the same time, Russian military officials claim that the situation is still difficult to understand due to deteriorating communication on the front line.
According to experts, the Ukrainian attacks are an opportunistic response to the favorable conditions on the battlefield that emerged after the Starlink blockade. In particular, this was confirmed by a senior NATO official.
But a Kremlin-linked Russian military correspondent made it clear that new problems were created after the Starlink blocking, probably alluding to the Telegram slowdown. This messenger was also used by the Russians for communications.
The ISW attributes the Ukrainian counterattacks on the border of Zaporizhzhya and Dnipropetrovsk region to attempts to exploit the advantage that was created after the Russian occupiers had communication problems.