It’s a wave. This Saturday during a conference, Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of intelligence within the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, gave information that sheds light on the extent of the Russian advance: “The Russian Federation has concentrated more than 420,000 military personnel in our temporarily occupied territories, including Crimea”.
However, this figure “does not include the Russian National Guard and other special structures responsible for maintaining the occupying power on our territories,” he added.
“Attacking port infrastructure”
For the past month, Russia has been using the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, to “ attack port infrastructure” in southern Ukraine, he said. “Drones deployed in Crimea are used against our ports of Izmail and Reni” through which Ukrainian grain was transported via the Black Sea until Moscow left an international agreement in July, detailed Skibitsky.
Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar, for her part, declared that the Russians aspired to recapture the areas in the Kharkiv region, in the northeast of the country, liberated a year ago by the Ukrainian army. “They want revenge,” she said. Their task in the east is also to deconcentrate our forces so that we cannot centralize them in the Bakhmut area where we are advancing successfully.”
The Russian army has the advantage
The Russian army continues to have the advantage over the Ukrainian troops in terms of weapons, against the backdrop of slow Ukrainian counter-offensive, in progress since June, she admitted. “We must recognize that the enemy is strong, that he has more men and more weapons,” Deputy Minister Maliar said.
According to her, just last week, the Russian army fired “nearly 400,000 shells” on the Ukrainian positions on the eastern front, when “we can use eight times less” ammunition.