Home › Security › Russian setbacks mount as Ukraine advances on 3 October 2022
Russian setbacks mount as Ukraine advances on 3 October 2022
Summary
A look back at a day of reported Ukrainian gains in the south and a senior Russian commander's dismissal.
What did Russia's military leadership face on 3 October 2022? A widening set of battlefield reverses, and a response in the form of a dismissal at the top of one of its districts.
On that date, the Russian Defence Ministry dismissed Colonel General Alexander Zhuravlyov, citing a series of military defeats in Ukraine. Major General Roman Berdnikov replaced him as commander of the Western Military District.
Advance in the south
The same day, Ukrainian forces were reported to have advanced more than 20 kilometres along the Dnieper towards Dudchany in Kherson Oblast. The advance was described at the time as a "major breakthrough" in the Ukrainian southern counteroffensive.
It followed gains made the previous day. On 2 October 2022, Ukrainian troops recaptured Khreshchenivka as they pushed south through Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast. Russia's 49th Combined Arms Army was reportedly withdrawing some troops from the frontline to Beryslav.
The fall of Lyman
The dismissal came two days after Ukrainian troops recaptured Lyman on 1 October 2022, following weeks of fighting for the city. That was one day after the annexation of the Donetsk People's Republic to Russia. The Russian Ministry of Defence said it had withdrawn its troops from the town because of a threat of encirclement.
The Lyman operation had unfolded during a larger Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast. By 30 September, Ukrainian forces had crossed the Siverskyi Donets River and advanced along the city's southern and eastern flanks. They also took ground northwest of the settlement, which cut the only road still supplying the occupying forces from the north.
After the defeat at Lyman, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, called on the Russian government to introduce martial law and to use low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Civilian toll
The fighting continued to cost civilian lives. On 1 October 2022, a civilian convoy of seven cars that had been attacked by Russian forces was discovered in Kupiansk Raion, Kharkiv Oblast. According to the local governor, Oleh Synyehubov, 24 people were killed, including a pregnant woman and 13 children.
Picture on 3 October 2022
Taken together, the reports from 1 to 3 October 2022 show Ukrainian forces regaining ground on more than one front: in Donbas around Lyman, and in the south of Kherson Oblast. On the Russian side, the dismissal of Zhuravlyov was explicitly tied to defeats in Ukraine, while a prominent figure was publicly urging far harsher measures.
