Following the Russian autumn run of 2025, we see that commanding the combined types of Russian troops in Ukraine, General Walery Gierasimov, in accordance with the rules of martial arts, continues to increase the strength of his offensive, beginning auxiliary directions of attack.
The main direction of the Russian offensive and the main run battle, and possibly the war, is under Pokrowski, and 1 of the auxiliary directions that launched the Gierasimov gene in September is the attack on the Zaporosian Front, which will be the subject of the following analysis.
The Russian Dniepr Group is the weakest Russian group which was separated to carry out the alleged peculiar military operation in Ukraine. His units fill the front line on the Kherson region along the Dniepr River line, from its mouth to the Black Sea, including the Kinbudr peninsula, to the tallness of the Kamian township, it is already Zaporozhye. Then he turns east to Zaporozhy, runs south of the town of Oriechowa, all the way to the village of small Tokmazka, for which fighting is taking place, and which in 2023 was the base of the Ukrainian troops' first attacks on Rabotiono as part of a large spring-summer offensive in 2023.
The “Dniepr” group is commanded by an outstanding figure of the Russian general, legendary WDW commander (Vazsulno Desant Forces), Colonel General Michał Jurewicz Tieplinski. The General was born in the town of Mospino in 1969 in Donbasa, the then russian Soviet Republic of the USSR. Tieplinski graduated from the Higher Officer's Air-Desant Military School in Riazana, even during the USSR period.
As a young lieutenant, he commanded a reconnaissance company of 106 Tulsk Air-Desant defender Division. He participated in stopping the escalation of the armed conflict in Transnistria in 1991, then fought in the First Chechen War, already within the Russian army. For his heroic attitude in the field of combat and individual heroism, including during the fight for Grozny, Mchał Tieplinski was awarded the highest Russian discrimination by the first Russian president Boris Yeltyn – the golden star of the Hero of Russia.
As a prominent officer, a war hero, Tieplinski graduated from the General Staff Academy in 2007. In the following years, he followed career levels, taking on successive command positions at army level and then military districts. According to any Ukrainian data, it was he who commanded Russian troops that entered Donbas in 2014 and crashed, along with pro-Russian rebels of Donbas, the Ukrainian army under Ilovian.
Since 2022, General Michał Tieplinski has been commander of the Russian Air-Desant Forces (WDW). From the first days, he besides fights in the war on Ukraine. He became celebrated for his successful offensive operations in Khersonhsk and an extraordinary skill of command, during his defense, against Ukrainian counteroffensive.
To the strategy and tactics manuals he passed his bravado retreat maneuver of November 2022 and bringing almost no failure in men and equipment, through a large water obstacle – Dniepr, 2 damaged bridges, counting more than 35,000 soldiers and officers of the Russian group. At that time, the “miracles” that he saved from the lap and wrecked by Ukrainian troops all Russian troops on the right bank of Dnieper, or at least a crucial part of it.
The individual presence of Tieplinski among the soldiers, his calmness, mastery and trust in him almost unlimited devotion of his subordinate paratroopers, constituting the bulk of his troops, made no panic erupt, everyone knew that he was not without forgetting, and the shielding troops with dedication continued on their posts.
For 1 long November night, 2 large bridges and crossings on the shoulders, to the another side of more than 35,000 soldiers, passed thousands of units of equipment, including tanks, artillery and armored vehicles. Tieplinski made the impossible and forever covered himself with fame, moving to the past of the Russian army, taking his place in the gallery of large Russian commanders.
General Tieplinski, surrounded by extraordinary respect and fame, criticized, however, the manifest errors of command and bad equipment of the Russian troops as sources of compromising defeats on the front in the fall of 2022. This provoked rage in the Russian MON and criticized Chief of Staff General Waler Gierasimov, who sent Tieplinski “on the side track” sending him on wellness leave.
After nearly a year, after another written request to Gierasimov to mention him to the front, Tieplinski returned and took command of the heavy weakened Dniepr Group. He was besides appointed by General Gierasimov 1 of respective of his deputies as commander of the combined Russian troops in Ukraine. However, most of the air-desant units were taken from Tieplinski, at the head of which he fought in 2022.
Battles of the Russian Dniepr Group in 2024
The front on Dnieper and Zaporozh in the Dniepr Grouping Belt since fall 2023 has fundamentally died. It was not until 2024, not without problems, that the troops of the Group first stopped, then bled, and then crashed, the landing of the Ukrainian Marine Brigades close Krynkami. A bloody conflict in which quantitatively limited Russian troops for many months were incapable to throw distant for Dnieper defending themselves heroically at the base of Ukrainian Marine soldiers, did not bring glory to Tieplinski. It is worth noting that the failed Ukrainian landing at Krynkami is critically assessed by many military analysts, as to the purpose, implementation and amount of losses. besides critically, the way the Russian army acted, which suffered considerable losses in the liquidation of this bridgehead and the failure of General Tieplinski himself, is assessed.
Additionally, in 2024, in the belt of the 58th National Army under the Dniepr Group, supported by 2 air-desant divisions, General Tieplinski drove the Ukrainians out of their bulge at Rabotine, which they had earned at the expense of large casualties during the failed large spring-summer offensive in 2023. Thus he liquidated Ukrainian conquests in Zaporozh in 2023. However, the year 2025 was coming and a large Russian offensive was planned since spring.
Battle of the main line of Ukrainian defence in Zaporozh
Since April 2025, a large Russian "crying offensive of the Gierasimov gene" has been conducted without operational pause. Due to limited forces, the Dniepr Group mostly carried out defensive actions. Ukrainian troops, leading the reorganization – the division into army corps was introduced, besides focused on defensive actions. many Ukrainian troops, knowing the area, cast highly elaborate, strong fortifications. The contact line of Russian and Ukrainian troops was in any distance from the main fortification line, which surrounded the alleged covert belt.
The Russian-Ukrainian “trouble” of each other, though bloody, was purely tactical. It was dominated by drone attacks and tiny infantry outings and artillery fire. However, the exception was the Russian designation of the minute of Ukrainian army rotation in the town of Kamianskie. This town lies on the bank of the erstwhile Kachowec reservoir, which turned into swamp after the dam was blown up in Kachowec. This was so an crucial site at the very edge of the main fortification line in Zaporozh.
In the spring of 2025 they were left by experienced Ukrainian battalions of the 128th Storm Mountain Brigade, and were loosened, among another things, by Belarusian renegades from the Kalinowski Regiment. However, the Russians, i.e. the old proven staff of General Tieplinski acted rapidly and efficiently as during the conflict in Khersonsk in the summertime of 2022. The energetic impact by forces on disorganized defenders, made by the forces of 2 regiments of the 7th Guards of the Landing and Storm Division (Górska) was a success. Camian and its fortifications were acquired, as well as the adjacent fortification line. Thus the Ukrainian blind line broke.
In June 2025, Ukrainians retreated to the main line of defense, after a series of unsuccessful counterattacks of the 128th Storm Mountain Brigade, which returned to its old place. Since mid-August 2025 Russian paratroopers from the 7th Guards of the Desert-Sturm Division and soldiers of 2 regiments from the 19th firearm Division (Russian 58th Guarded National Army) have reinforced paratroopers from the recently formed 49th Desert-Sturm Brigade. Soldiers from the 4th Russian Army Base in South Ossetia were besides sent here.
The “Dniepr” Group troops in dense battles drove out in July and August Ukrainians from the village of Pławni, north of Kamianskie, and captured the southernly separated territory of the neighboring town of Stiepnogorsk, which passed from hand to hand. The town of Stiepnogorsk is simply a fortress on the main line of the Ukrainian defence of Zaporozh. Its location about 20 km from the regional capital – Zaporoża makes it possible for Russian Drovers located there to have bridges on Dnieper and paralyze 1 of the main logistics arteries of the Ukrainian army.
Understanding the seriousness of the situation, the Ukrainian General Staff directed the reserves here and threw them at the beginning of September into furious counterattacks.
The impact force of the counter-attacking Ukrainian group was: the elite 210th "Berlingo" Storm Regiment and 33rd Storm Regiment. The Ukrainian strike took on the Russian 108 Guards of the Cuban Armed Forces Regiment and the 49th Armed Forces Brigade.
Ukrainians came forward with the momentum, with strong support of drones, artillery and aviation, dropping French bombs gliders HAMER. As a result, they achieved success and expelled Russian paratroopers from the Stiepnogorska district, coming all the way to Kamianskie.
However, here General Tieplinski's staff set a trap. The Russian 429th firearm Regiment Mechanized from the 19th firearm Division entered the fight, and the flank of the Ukrainian attack was struck by the 247th defender of the Caucasian Cossack Desantowo-Sturm Regiment, supported by the strong fire of the 292nd Artillery Regiment. The Russian ranks included operators of the 22nd Specnaz Brigade, including the “Lancet” drones. The buoys were highly bloody.
Ukrainians supported their strike group with battalions of 128 Storm Mountain Brigade and 241 Territorial Defence Brigade. The tide of triumph on the Russian side was outweighed by the impact of Russian drones WDW from the company “Bobry” and the impact of Russian bomb aviation. The Ukrainians retreated, and Russian paratroopers entered along Dniepr to the railway station of the next village – Primorskie, and through the blown-up viaduct to the intersection on Stiepnogorsk.
It seemed that the offensive possibilities of General Tieplinsky would be exhausted here, due to the fact that the possibilities of the Dniepr Group are limited. Additionally, seeing the threat, General Alexander of Syria, Chief of General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, directed from the detachment to the Primorese elite 7th peculiar Forces Brigade. What is highly important, in the conditions of the combat anno domini 2025, the Ukrainian company of Omega-6 drones "Kryla", strengthened until the pilotless battalion – the 422th Battalion of unmanned aircraft with what a "thankful" own name: "Luftwaffe".
After 20 September, however, Russian troops again began to push forward. The 4th North Ossetia Base entered the conflict with its brigade group and appeared, rather unexpectedly, another large unit. General Tieplinski was beaten from Stawka under Sum, the 11th defender Squadron-Sturm. And from this "supervising" he brought out the recently formed 104th defender Squadron. It was the paratroopers from her 328 Guarded Storm Regiment that entered rather deep into Stiepnogorsk buildings.
In the second pitch, the celebrated 345 Guardry Regiment of Desantowo-Stourma comes up with the name of legendary WDW commander, General Walery Wostrotin supported by 1180 Artillery Regiment. The fierce conflict raged, Ukrainian strategical operational command threw its last reserve here – 128 dense Brigade.
It is worth noting that the fight against Russian paratroopers is besides hard for Ukrainian soldiers, due to the fact that in their ranks, due to training and the specifics of the fight, there are many aviation guidance officers. They have suitable equipment to illuminate laser-guided aerial bombs. Ukrainian war bloggers signal that the Russians have a numerical advantage and pave the way for the devastating strikes of Su-34 bombers from the 11th Air Army.
Interestingly, despite the cool relations between General Tieplin and General Gierasimov, as I wrote earlier, the second just directed into the area of the Dniepr Group highly experienced combat paratroopers from the 98th Guarding Air-Desant Division, who, a fewer weeks ago after a year of dense fighting, yet captured the city fortress of Jar. He gets General Tieplinski another strong “card” to break the main line of defence in Zaporozh and get a “key” to paralyze bridges on Dnieper in the city of Zaporozhye.
To the arrival of the autumn razputica, the fields around Primorska, Stiepnogorks will soak with soldier's blood, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, and Stiepnogorsk itself, will divide the destiny of the cities of Donbas. Displaced, by Ukrainian bomb squads he was turned into a fortress, and now he will be taken off the ground, as an arena of dense fighting, Russians and Ukrainians in a key conflict over Zaporozhye. The conflict rate is high, and both militants are aware of it.
Krzysztof Podgórski
