Russia claims to have made its furthest advance in the Dnipropetrovsk region, is a new front about to open?

The Russian Defense Ministry said on October 1 that combat forces had taken control of the village of Verbove in the Dnipropetrovsk region, marking the furthest advance in the area.

Dnipropetrovsk, which has never seen fighting before, has been the target of Russian attacks in recent months. In late August, Ukrainian battlefield monitoring sources reported that Russian forces took control of several villages for the first time.

In recent days, the DeepState analysis group, which is affiliated with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, said that Russian forces had closed in on Verbove, a village about 15 kilometers from the town of Pokrovske. Pokrovske is a key town on the Zaporizhzhia–Donetsk highway.

Last week, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky admitted that the situation in the area where the three regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia meet is “tense.” The Ukrainian General Staff had believed that Moscow had no intention of advancing deep into the Dnipropetrovsk region, calling the Russian presence there “only symbolic.”

However, Russia is showing signs of increasing attacks in the region. Russia's current strategy is to hold out in hot spots where Ukraine has deployed a dense defense force and prioritize attacks on areas where Kiev has deployed a thin defense layer. On September 30, a drone attack on the city of Dnipro killed one person and injured more than 30 others.

The Ukrainian military refused to comment on the current situation in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

According to observers, Russia may open a new offensive front in the Dnipropetrovsk region due to its terrain advantage and Ukraine's lack of defense priority in the region. In addition to Pokrovske in the northwest of Verbove, the Russian army may also target the city of Hulyaipole in the southwest.

In addition to the new advance in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russia is also making a strong push in the city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region and is getting closer to encircling the city of Siversk.