Pokrovsk stays the "hottest spot" alongside Ukraine's entrance traces, with Russia concentrating its largest group of personnel in that route — a power numbering 111,000 troops, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reported on June 27.
Russia has for months centered its offensive efforts on the embattled city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast and has just lately been escalating makes an attempt to interrupt via to neighboring Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a area that has not but seen fight. Ukraine denied studies that Russian forces breached the regional border in Could and June.
In Could, Syrskyi reported that Ukraine had stabilized the state of affairs in Pokrovsk.
After a working go to to the Pokrovsk sector, Syrskyi on June 27 mentioned that town remains to be "the most popular spot alongside the whole 1,200-kilometer entrance line" with practically 50 fight clashes recorded per day. It's additionally the place Russia has concentrated the majority of its forces in Ukraine.
Russia has amassed "about 111,000 personnel" within the Pokrovsk sector, Syrskyi mentioned, however Ukrainian forces are holding the road.
"The enemy continues to attempt to break via to the executive border of Donetsk Oblast … Russian sabotage and assault teams have been significantly lively right here two weeks in the past," Syrskyi mentioned.
"However they have been all destroyed or neutralized, and the remnants have been pushed again from the executive border. The state of affairs is below management."
Russia is trying to interrupt into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast not just for operational causes, but additionally for performative ones, Syrskyi mentioned.
"To attain a psychological impact: to place the notorious 'foot of the Russian soldier' there, plant a flag, and trumpet one other pseudo-'victory.'"
Syrskyi's feedback echo current remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who claimed in a propaganda-heavy speech on June 20 that "wherever the foot of a Russian soldier steps is Russian land." President Volodymyr Zelensky fired again the subsequent day, promising "Ukrainian drones for the foot of each Russian soldier."
Whereas Putin claimed on June 27 that Moscow is "prepared" for a 3rd spherical of peace talks with Kyiv, the Kremlin has despatched no sign that it's able to abandon its maximalist ambitions in Ukraine.
Russia's so-called "peace memorandum" calls for that Ukraine acknowledge Russia's annexation of Crimea, in addition to Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk oblasts — none of that are absolutely below Moscow's management.
Zelensky's Deputy Chief of Employees Pavlo Palisa mentioned on June 6 that Russia goals to occupy all Ukrainian territory east of the Dnipro River and advance towards Odesa and Mykolaiv in a broader plan to sever Ukraine's entry to the Black Sea amid a renewed summer time offensive.
The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk