Operation Balaton
Operation Balaton was a strategic offensive carried out by Ruvelka during the Zemplen War. The operation lasted from 22 September to 19 October 2009 and was carried out by Army Group Center under General Eliska Hanáková against Army Group Beta under Field Marshal Arisdages Koundakjian.
Following Operation Polyandreion, the Imperial General Staff of the Imperial Armed Forces of Ruvelka was concerned by the progress of the Syaran forces in the central section of the front. While the Syaran advance at halted at the foothills of the Kurilla Mountain Range, the Syaran threat to Debrecen was considered significant, and General Hanáková was ordered to launch a counter-offensive to reverse Syaran gains and remove the strategic threat. Hanáková was reluctant to go on the offensive so soon after the heavy fighting in the Battle of Sagerejo, but developed a plan to exploit the tenuous position of the Syaran forces arrayed across central Ruvelka.
The Ruvelkans began the offensive on 22 September 2009. The primary focus of the attack fell on the Syaran 9th Army, which was strung along an elongated defensive line across a front nearly 300 kilometers long. Secondary attacks aimed to force Syaran forces of 1st Army to abandon Sagerejo. The Ruvelkans enjoyed initial success against the 9th Army, but diversionary attacks against 1st Army fell flat, allowing the Syarans to divert reserves from 6th Army to shore up the 9th. After two weeks of heavy fighting the Ruvelkans had driven 9th Army back nearly 50 kilometers in all sectors, but on 9 October the Syarans launched counter-strokes against the increasingly exposed flanks of the 8th Balatonalmádi Front. The Ruvelkans were forced to fall back on the defensive, but Koundakjian's insistence on continuing the attack were denied by Syaran Commonality Armed Forces Chief of Staff Vakhtang Avakian, bringing the fighting to an end on 19 October.
The outcome Operation Balaton remains a point of contention. While the Ruvelkans gained ground in many sectors and overall pushed Army Group Beta back, Army Group Center fell short of its operational objectives. Syaran Central Command's refusal to allow Field Marshal Koundakjian to continue his counter-offensive became a bitter point of contention between himself and his superiors in Zovahr, while General Hanáková summarized the operation in a message to Chief of Staff Áron Surány as "a very bloody draw".