Russian President Vladimir Putin. Figure: Flip through Putin’s Facebook (file photo)
It has been half a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. The aggressive actions have not progressed smoothly and the offensive has stagnated. According to a report by the Kyiv Post on the 2nd, Oleksiy Hromov, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Ukrainian General Staff, alleged in a briefing on the 1st that Russian President Vladimir Putin had given orders to the army. , to fully control the entire territory of Donetsk Oblast (Donetsk) in eastern Ukraine by September 15.
Khromov mentioned that the Russian army continued to control Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Nikolai The occupied areas of the Ukrainian states, including Mykolaiv, are trying to create conditions for the resumption of the offensive, while also repeatedly adjusting plans and actions according to Putin’s instructions to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk region by the 15th of this month.
Khromov revealed that according to the information received, due to the heavy loss of personnel, the High Command of the Russian Armed Forces decided to disband the 31st Independent Guards Air Assault Brigade and the 22nd Independent Guards Special Purpose Brigade. The surviving soldiers of these two brigades are currently less than 20%. On the other hand, the Russian army is regrouping the troops of the Central Military District in Luhansk-Donetsk, moving in the direction of Kurakhiv and mobilizing the recently created 3rd Army to the Ukrainian-Russian border, but still It is unclear what the Russian military plans to attack.
Putin had previously announced that he would occupy all of the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, but the Ukrainian army claimed to still control more than one-third of the land in Donetsk. The Associated Press quoted Ukrainian officials and military analysts in June as saying that the Russian army seemed to occupy regarding half of the Donetsk region at the time, but it was unclear whether the occupation expanded or narrowed later.
