Russian forces are working to regroup and charge after the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraineaccording to a report from a top Ukrainian official serving on the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Russian President Putin Reportedly ordered Russian forces to approach the administrative border of the Donetsk region on September 15. Russia will attempt to transfer its Third Army Corps to handle the transfer of Donetsk, Deputy Director-General Main Operations Department, Oleksiy Gromov, said on Thursday, based on Interfax.
“We are looking into the matter directly with the participation of this unit that will attempt to conduct offensive operations in the direction of Donetsk,” Gromov said. “The enemy continues to hold occupied areas in the Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, and is also trying to create favorable conditions for the continuation of the offensive.”
But the new corps Russia wants to send to Donetsk to tame Ukrainian forces isn’t necessarily the most impressive. In recent days, Russia has tried to raise the bar for the new group of fighters by introducing age limits on recruits and even recruiting prisoners, so that they can increase their numbers. itself, according to a senior US defense official.
“Russia has begun trying to expand its recruitment efforts to staff at least one volunteer battalion per federal district and raise a new third corps. They’ve done this in part by removing the upper age limit for recruits and also by recruiting prisoners,” the senior US defense official said at a news conference with reporters. member on Monday. “Many of these recruits have been commented on as being older, underpowered and poorly trained. So all this suggests to us is that any additional personnel Russia may have assembled by the end of the year may not increase… Russia’s overall combat power.”
Putin’s armed forces have faltered since the beginning of the war. Some troops have brought sabotage Russian equipment. And Russia failed to achieve its major goals in the war. Moscow aims to take Donetsk before June, but was unsuccessful, according to the head of the military-civilian service of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko. Russia can’t get Kyivcapital and hasn’t had much space since then mid summer.
After months of problems, Putin has managed to pour cold water on the idea that Russia has made all-out efforts to move forward, only to fail. In July, he warned that “generally, we haven’t started anything serious yet.”
But Russia aims to add 137,000 troops for its armed forces in January, nor is it likely to prove useful to Moscow’s war planning, the senior US defense official said.
“This effort is unlikely to succeed,” the official said.
The news of the Russian rallying effort came after Russia’s top military official announced that Russian forces were reaching a point of slowing down in the war. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed just last week Russian forces have slowed down their war effort in recent weeks.
And in recent days, Russian forces have faced more setbacks. According to the Pentagon, as Ukrainian forces launch a counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, aiming to retake Kherson, a city Russia captured in the early days of this year’s war, Russian units are faltering. step.
“Ukrainian military activities…have created some forward movement, and in some cases…in the Kherson area,” Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder told reporters during a briefing. short meeting this week. “In some cases, we know that Russian units are falling behind.”
