1 Instute for the Study of War and AEI’s Crical Threats Project 2023
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 8, 2023
Karolina Hird, George Barros, Grace Mappes, Nicole Wolkov,
Mason Clark, and Fredrick W. Kagan
June 8, 2023, 7:30pm ET
Click here to see ISW’s interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This map is
updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.
Click here to access ISW’s archive of interactive time-lapse maps of the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. These maps complement the static control-of-terrain map that
ISW produces daily by showing a dynamic frontline. ISW will update this time-lapse
map archive monthly.
Note: The data cutoff for this product was 2pm ET on June 8. ISW will cover
subsequent reports in the June 9 Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment.
Ukraine has conducted counteroffensive operations with differential outcomes in at
least three sectors of the front as part of wider counteroffensive efforts that have been
unfolding since Sunday, June 4. Ukrainian officials signaled that Ukrainian forces have
transitioned from defensive to offensive operations in the Bakhmut sector and are making gains of
between 200 meters and nearly two kilometers on the flanks of the city.[1] Ukrainian forces have
made tactical gains during limited localized counterattacks in western Donetsk Oblast near the
Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border since June 4.[2] Ukrainian forces additionally conducted an attack
in western Zaporizhia Oblast on the night of June 7 to 8 but do not have appeared to have made gains
as part of this attack as of the time of this publication.
Ukrainian forces conducted a limited but still significant attack in western Zaporizhia
Oblast on the night of June 7 to 8. Russian forces apparently defended against this
attack in a doctrinally sound manner and had reportedly regained their initial positions
as of June 8. Russian sources began reporting late at night on June 7 that elements of Ukrainian
brigades that have recently been equipped with Western kit launched an attack southwest of Orikhiv
in western Zaporizhia Oblast.[3] Several Russian milbloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces attacked
along the Mala Tokmachka-Polohy line with the aim of breaking through the Russian defensive line
between Robotyne and Verbove (both about 15km southeast of Orikhiv).[4] Russian sources
acknowledged that Ukrainian forces broke through the first line of defense in this area, held by
elements of the 291st and 70th Motorized Rifle Regiments (42nd Motorized Rifle Division, 58th
Combined Arms Army, Southern Military District) and the 22nd and 45th Separate Guards Special
Purpose (GRU) Brigades, but reported that these Russian elements succeede d in counterattacking
and eventually pushing Ukrainian forces back to their original positions.[5] Available geolocated
combat footage suggests that limited Ukrainian forces crossed the N08 Polohy-Voskresenka highway,
but Russian sourcing indicates that Russian forces likely pushed Ukrainians back in the Orikhiv
direction towards the frontline and regained the lost positions.[6]
