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Russia on offensive on Kupiansk front, gathers 100,000 soldiers: Ukraine

Russia has gathered more than 100,000 soldiers on in the Lyman and Kupiansk sector and its troops have gone on the offensive, Ukrainian military said on Monday.

“In the Lyman and Kupiansk direction, the enemy has concentrated a very powerful force – more than 100,000 personnel, more than 900 tanks, more than 555 artillery systems, 370 self-propelled guns. For scale, the largest number of Soviet troops in Afghanistan was 120,000,” the spokesperson for the eastern military command Serhiy Cherevatyi said according to Ukrinform.

Cherevatyi added that in the Lyman-Kupiansk axis the Russians have concentrated landing units, the best motorized infantry units, as well as territorial troops and private military companies as the reserve.

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Commander of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that the Russians were going on the offensive on the Kupiansk front: “In order to stop the offensive actions of our troops in the area of Bakhmut, the enemy is actively transferring additional forces and means to this direction, the basis of which are parts of the airborne troops.”

He said: “At the same time, the enemy went on the offensive in the Kupiansk direction, setting himself the goal of defeating our troops in the Kupiansk area and continuing the offensive into the depth of our battle formations.”

The Ukrainian military official said: “They are concentrating everything in order to break through our defenses. Our soldiers are on the defensive. They don't allow the enemy to finally seize the initiative.”

Cherevatyi said Ukrainians were destroying enemy forces and their equipment in this sector and the Russians needed to repair the equipment and rotate their personnel.

“Given that they announced a major strategic offensive early this spring, they want to show at least some success. That's why they concentrated their maximum efforts in this direction to show that they are capable of some offensive actions after the failure of the Bakhmut operation, where we seized the initiative now.”

While in Bakhmut, Cherevatyi said that Russia’s losses in the vicinity of the flashpoint city of Bakhmut are now approaching those of the Wagner group during the peak of the battles for control over the city with the mercenary forces.

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