On the Ukrainian front, changing weather conditions created dangerous conditions for both sides, but also opportunities.
Due to the fog, both Russia and Ukraine have restricted the use of drones, but both have successfully used the fog to their advantage.
On Friday, Russian forces took advantage of poor visibility to construct boats to cross the Vobcha River in southern Ukraine, according to an unofficial Deep State website that monitors battlefield developments in the country.
According to the Deep State, they managed to cross at least 10 vehicles and then dispersed into the village of Dakne.
“The fog is very thick and enemy forces continue to gather,” Stanislav Buniatov, a Ukrainian soldier, said in a telegram.
In Ukraine’s Donetsk region, fog hampered drone operations on both sides in the heavily fought city of Pokrovsk, adding an element of randomness to the battlefield.
“It’s fog in the Donbass. Moving around in the fog is good because you’re less susceptible to drone attacks, but it’s also difficult for us. Everything here becomes a kind of backgammon,” said one Ukrainian soldier in the area.
The fog has allowed Ukrainian assault regiments to raid parts of Pokrovsk where Russian troops are stationed in recent days, “crossing the railroad tracks that divide Pokrovsk at breakneck speed,” military analyst David Ax said.
“Gunfights are breaking out in the most unexpected places (especially after fog),” Ukrainian drone operator Evhen Strokan wrote on Thursday.
Ukrainians normally use surveillance drones to track Russian military movements, but the weather is hampering that.
“Fog, wind, and rain will significantly reduce drone operations and enable Russian infiltration of Ukrainian positions,” Michael Coffman, an analyst who recently visited Ukraine, wrote in a post on X Friday.
On a porous and fluid frontline, Ax said in his Substack Trench Art this week that “bad weather and the resulting gaps in overhead surveillance” by Ukrainian and Russian drones “only exacerbate the chaos.”
That would help Russia, which “demands to explore and advance until it finally secures control of new territory,” but could also benefit Ukrainians who want to raid Russian-controlled territory or rescue besieged troops, he added.
The weather also favored Russian forces in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region, where they captured the village of Yabulkove and two nearby villages, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense on Saturday.
The Ukrainian military said on Saturday that there had been heavy offensive operations and heavy artillery shelling by Russian forces in parts of Zaporizhzhya and Dnipropetrovsk regions in southern Ukraine.
It said there had been nearly 40 clashes in the past day, adding: “Enemy losses amounted to approximately 300 personnel and 58 vehicles.”
The Ukrainian military announced that Ukrainian troops had been withdrawn from a village in Zaporizhzhya to a “defensive position.”
Earlier this week, General of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Shirushkyi said the situation in some areas of the south had deteriorated significantly, with the enemy occupying three villages “taking advantage of their numerical superiority in troops and resources.”
Russian forces are now about 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the region’s capital, the city of Zaporizhia, and less than 10 kilometers from seizing the city of Khlyaipol, a long-standing goal of Moscow.
The town’s junta announced Friday that 34 more civilians had been evacuated. “Danger is everywhere, but people are risking their lives to help evacuate,” the group said on Facebook.
