Russia has amassed around 710,000 troops along the front line that streteches 1,255-kilometres, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in an interview with the Sky News on December 5.
The top commander said Russian troops are attempting to advance along virtually the entire front line, while the Russian army is losing up to 1,000-1,100 soldiers killed or wounded daily, "and a majority are killed".
"Our strategy is to exhaust the Russian army as much as possible, prevent its advance, hold our territory, while simultaneously striking the enemy in the near rear, the operational depth, and into Russia itself, with the aim of undermining its defence capability and industrial capacity,” Syrskyi explained.
The military official reported fierce fightings around the cities of Lyman and Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, the city of Kupiansk in northeastrn Kharkiv region and near the town of Huliaipole in southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
Meanwhile, the Ukrianain army denied Russian reports that the cities of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad had been encircled. Yevhen Lasiichuk, Commander of the 7th Corps of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces said in a televised remarks that the line of contact in Pokrovsk runs "along the railway", and Ukrainian troops are maintaining full control over the northern part of the city. He stressed that Ukrainian troops were holding back Russian advances. Furthermore, Lasiichuk acknowledged that the situation was more challenging in the southern part of the front that Russia is using for build-up and advance. “We detect and destroy the enemy, preventing it from reaching Pokrovsk,” the official said, adding that Russian troops are using a tactic to bypass urban fighting, avoid entering the settlement, and attempt to move around from the flanks.
Comments
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *