Ukrainian high command sends reserves to eastern front

Ukraine war

Ukrainian high command sends reserves to eastern front

Ukraine is increasing its troops in Donbass. A Russian breakthrough there would endanger important cities on the Dnipro River.

Because of the Russian advance in eastern Ukraine, the Kiev high command has moved reserves to the particularly threatened Pokrovsk and Kurakhove front sectors. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Olexander Syrskyj, announced this on Facebook. The fresh troops were equipped with additional ammunition and weapons, he wrote. It’s about thwarting the enemy’s plans “that go far beyond these sections of the front.”

According to the General Staff situation report, the fiercest fighting took place again on Friday near Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. The cities are located on the western edge of the Donbass mining and industrial region. This is followed by an open steppe landscape up to the Dnipro River. A breakthrough would open the way for the Russian army to the important cities of Dnipro and Zaporizhia.

The advance is costly for the Russian troops, but with their superior numbers of soldiers and material they are pushing the Ukrainians back step by step. In this situation, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj appointed Major General Mykhailo Drapatyj as the new head of the Ukrainian ground forces. Ukraine has been resisting a large-scale Russian invasion for more than two and a half years.