A contested approach to Orikhiv
Mashovets placed the remaining Russian troops in two locations: the basements of a ruined penal colony and a couple of buildings near a branch of Nova Poshta, Ukraine's main parcel service. Other Russian assault groups have withdrawn from the village's southeastern edge toward Bilohiria or an area roughly 2 kilometers northeast of it.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) cited Mashovets' report in its November 5 assessment and concluded that Ukrainian troops had recently gained ground in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Mala Tokmachka protects the approaches to Orikhiv, a Ukrainian defensive hub on the route to the regional capital, Zaporizhzhia. Russia has been unable to secure the village for more than 1,500 days. Meduza's May 2026 analysis described one obstacle: the settlement extends about nine kilometers (5.6 miles) east to west along the Konka River, making it difficult for the limited forces of Russia's 70th Motor Rifle Regiment to capture.
Orikhiv's estimated population stood at 13,896 on January 1, 2022. By 2024, only about 800 residents remained amid persistent Russian shelling, according to Wikipedia's summary of Ukrainian and international reporting.
Two capture claims and a continuing battle
Moscow's first declaration that it controlled Mala Tokmachka came in March 2022; Ukrainian troops had returned by that summer. In November 2025, Russia again announced the village's capture. The Moscow Times reported that Defense Minister Andrei Belousov congratulated the 42nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division for taking it.
Mashovets now identifies that division as one of the principal formations of Russia's 58th Army fighting toward Orikhiv, with forces in the center and on the right flank. He said elements of two Chechen Akhmat regiments may be reinforcing it. Meduza identifies the 42nd Division, part of the 58th Combined Arms Army, as based in Chechnya.
The opposing units have a history in this sector. According to Meduza, by mid-2024 Ukraine's 118th Mechanized Brigade, formed in 2023, was defending Mala Tokmachka against the 42nd Division's 70th Motor Rifle Regiment. Another Ukrainian mechanized brigade held the neighboring suburb of Novodanylivka against the division's 71st Motor Rifle Regiment.
Meduza dates the start of the battle for Mala Tokmachka to April 2025, when the 70th Regiment reached the village's southeastern edge. It had support from units of the 270th "reserve" regiment, which had been formed in Chechnya at the beginning of that year. A second phase of Russia's subsidiary offensive against Mala Tokmachka and Novodanylivka began in October 2025, the outlet reported.
Limited gains around the town
Inside Orikhiv, Mashovets estimated that a single active Russian group of perhaps five or six infantrymen remained on the southeastern outskirts. Ukrainian forces continue to hold Novoandriivka and Novopavlivka west of town firmly, although Russia has made gains elsewhere nearby.
North of Nesterianka, Russian troops penetrated as far as 1.8 kilometers into Ukrainian lines. They also seized at least half of the Uspenivka gully between Robotyne and Novodanylivka, according to Mashovets.
He assessed that Russia's 58th Army seeks to eliminate the Orikhiv defensive area and reach the immediate approaches to Zaporizhzhia city. Russian commanders continue to favor a deep encirclement from both sides of Orikhiv as a way to take the town, but he reported no significant progress toward that objective.
The scale of the wider objective is substantial. In a September 3, 2026, France 24 report, Finnish military analyst Emil Kastehelmi of the Black Bird Group estimated that Russia held roughly 75% of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. He noted that the regional capital had around 700,000 residents before 2022 and that Russia had not yet fought an urban battle of that size during this war.
Russian groups move through the former reservoir
Farther west, about 30 kilometers from Orikhiv, Mashovets reported Russian efforts to resume a northward advance along the Dnipro River. Small infantry and sabotage groups are moving through the former Kakhovka Reservoir toward Malokaterynivka, using the drained basin to get around Ukrainian positions in the river marshes.
The reservoir emptied after Russia destroyed the Kakhovka dam in June 2023. France 24 reported on September 3, 2026, that tall weeds, bushes and willow thickets now cover the exposed ground, making troops harder for drones to detect. Small patrols from both armies operate in this no man's land.
Kastehelmi told France 24 that the Russian infiltration served reconnaissance purposes and could not provide the basis for a larger, more significant offensive.
Mashovets also reported a Russian advance of about 2 kilometers east of Stepnohirsk. Ukraine's General Staff said Russian forces attacked toward nearby Lukianivske on November 5.
Despite the increased Russian activity, Mashovets judged the operational results to be limited: "The fairly obvious stepping-up of the forward units of Russia's 58th Army over at least the past month and a half has not brought its command any significant (operational) results," he wrote.
