Thank you for reporting that. Small clarification on the directions: Slobozhansky is the area along the state border in Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts, which coincides with most of the territory covered by the Russian Group of Forces “North” - up to the Oskil River, more or less. Lyman is used for both Svatove and Kreminna sectors. Novopavlivka is the direction used by the Ukrainians for what the Russians use the term “Yuzhno-Donetsk”: the part of Donetsk Oblast south of the Avdiivka sector, i.e. Marinka, Vuhledar and most of the Velyka Novosilka sectors.

At that time too the situation regarding the reserves was extremely critical - the UAF spent May/June 2022 constantly on the edge. When Popasna was seized by the Russians in the first half of May ‘22, the Ukrainian 24th Mechanized Brigade was in tatters, after putting up a tenacious and strenuous resistance. The brigade’s cooks and the musical band also had to fight.

The area was the main effort of PMC Wagner, supported by elements of numerous motor rifle, air assault and naval infantry units as well as a lot of artillery brigades. When the Russians, after the middle of the month, managed to break through to the north and especially to the north-west, there were very few Ukrainian troops to oppose them, and with very serious shell availability issues - with the tanks being forced into indirect fire roles to replace artillery, which prompted to a shortage of tank ammos too. It was not until late May that the “firefighters” of the 80th Air Assault Brigade managed to stop the 76th VDV Division and elements of the 90th Tank Division, when the Russians already had taken the Bakhmut-Lysychansk Highway under direct fire control. And other elements of the 80th Air Assault Brigade had to take the fight to make up for the loss of ground around Toshkivka, to delay the closing of the Zolote/Hirske pocket!

Another case was Svitlodarsk, which was being successfully defended by the 30th Mechanized Brigade. Then it was forced to send one of its battalions to Bilohorivka (where the Russians attempted the well-known mechanized crossing over the Siversky Donets) and another one to the north of Popasna. PMC Wagner eventually took the town relatively easily, as there were physically very few people left to defend it. IIRC, a potentially successful counterattack by the 93rd Mechanized Brigade in the Izyum sector was cancelled for a lack of fresh battalions! Although it’s worth noting that some of the problems at that time were self-inflicted: numerous brigades were concentrated on defending the wrong side of the Siversky Donets, both in the Severodonetsk/Rubizhne and the Lyman/Sviatohirsk areas. And simultaneously several recently activated reserve brigades were engaged in mostly unsuccessful counterattacks along the Inhulets River, between the Mykolaiv and Kherson Oblasts. Only the exhaustion of the Russians, the transfer of the Eastern Military District to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts, the arrival of aid from partner and the reconstitution of the existing brigades, along with the creation of new ones and the commitment of TDF brigades outside their own oblast, allowed the Ukrainians to take a breath and the Russian advances to be halted.

Although as far as Ocheretyne is concerned, I wonder why the 3rd Assault Brigade was not employed to stop the Russians, just like when they were sent to Krasnohorivka in late February to stop the Russian advance in that town. The majority of the 3rd Assault Brigade was withdrawn at the end of February, when the 61st Mechanized Brigade was committed in Lastochkyne/Orlivka, and in late March the section of the front previously under their responsibility (the area around Semenivka) was handed over to the 68th Jager Brigade. Almost all the maneuver units of the 3rd Assault Brigade, except minor elements, are in the rear at the moment being.