Ukraine War Map Shows Counteroffensive Gains as US M1 Abrams Tanks Arrive

Ukrainian troops have continued to make incremental gains against Russia, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said, with its map shows Kyiv’s progress at a time when long-awaited U.S.-supplied weapons to Kyiv are making headlines.

The Washington-based think tank said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had continued to advance near Bakhmut in the Donetsk oblast and in western Zaporizhzhia during the counteroffensive, which is aimed at recapturing Russian-occupied territory.

The Ukrainian General Staff said that on Tuesday Ukrainian forces had partial success west of Verbove, six miles east of Robotyne, the town in western Zaporizhia Oblast Ukraine said it had captured in August.

Meanwhile, geolocated footage from Monday also showed an advance by Kyiv northwest of Zaliznyanske, which is six miles northwest of Bakhmut.

The ISW provides maps with its daily updates and its graphics on Tuesday showed how over the last few days near Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces had advanced to the railway line north of the settlement of Klishchiivka on October 15 and northwest of Zaliznianske the following day. Newsweek has emailed the Russian defense ministry for comment.

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. confirmed that all 31 of the American-made M1 Abrams main battle tanks it had previously pledged have arrived in Ukraine.

U.S. Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) Spokesperson Colonel Martin O’Donnell said Ukrainian troops who had trained with U.S. forces in Germany returned to Ukraine, although it is expected to take time for Kyiv to fully deploy the vehicles to the frontline.

Another U.S-supplied weapon, the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), were used for the first time to strike Russian targets on Tuesday, it has been reported.

Ukraine said it struck Russian assets at airfields in the Luhansk and Berdyansk. destroying nine Russian helicopters, military equipment, an air-defense system, ammunition warehouses and runways.

Video on social media shows the use of the long-range systems that Kyiv has been long calling for. The Wall Street Journal had reported that a “small number” of ATACMS missiles were “secretly sent to Ukraine in recent days.” The ISW said that the ATACMS strikes “will likely prompt the Russian command to disperse aviation assets and withdraw some aircraft to airfields further from the frontline.”

While some versions of the missiles can go as far as about 180 miles, the ones sent to Ukraine have a shorter range and carry cluster munitions, which open in the air and release hundreds of bomblets rather than a single warhead.

David Silbey, associate professor of history at Cornell University, said that the ATACMS will put some of northern Crimea, which is occupied by Russia, within Ukraine’s attacking range, but they will be “of limited utility.”

“The restrictions in number and range that the U.S. has put on them means that the Ukrainians won’t be able to hit a substantial number of targets for a sustained period,” he told Newsweek in emailed comments.

However, he said that ATACMS will allow Ukraine to hit targets previously beyond their capability but while “there’s going to be a fair amount of noise around this…I don’t think they move the needle all that much.”