Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Thursday: “The Russian military command is continuing to undertake measures to replenish losses in military personnel. In particular, it deploys prisoners to staff its units. According to the information available, up to 400 of them have arrived at a military training centre in Rostov Oblast (Russia) and will undergo training until 30 September,” as quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda website.
'Low-skilled Russian troops being sent to the front'
Ukraine’s military command added: “Recently conscripted, low-skilled Russian troops are being sent to the front. For example, two out of the seven tanks deployed to Lyman in Donetsk Oblast ended up in a road accident on their way there on 26 September. In addition, the newly formed tank crews have not undergone proper fire training with standard tank weapons.”
The Ukrainian General Staff also reported that “Russian occupation authorities in Crimea received an order to conscript, in the first instance, Crimean Tatars, and to deploy them in the areas where the most intense fighting is taking place.”
Russian assaults
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued efforts to seize all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and hold on to captured territory, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported on Thursday.
“Over the course of the past 24 hours, Russian invaders carried out 3 missile strikes and 8 airstrikes, as well as over 82 attacks using multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) on military and civilian targets across Ukraine,” according to Ukraine’s General Staff.
Ukraine’s military command added that “more than 28 Ukrainian cities, towns and villages came under Russian fire, including Siversk, Bilohorivka, Yurivka, Marinka, Kryvyi Rih, Vyshchetarasivka, Mykolaiv and Ternovi Pody.”
“On other fronts, the Russians continued to fire on military and civilian targets using tank guns, mortars and artillery,” Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian forces fight back
Ukraine’s General Staff stated that Russia continued to suffer losses, with Ukrainian forces destroying three Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems "near Tokmak on the Zaporizhzhia front" on Tuesday.
"Russia’s fatalities and casualties have yet to be confirmed,” it said.
Kyiv further reported that “over the course of the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian defence forces repelled Russian attacks in the vicinity of Zaitseve, Maiorsk, Zalizne, Bakhmutske, Odradivka, Mykolaivka Druha, Ozerianivka, Pervomaiske, Pobieda, Novomykhailivka, Pavlivka and Bezimenne.”
Moreover, “to support the actions of Ukrainian ground troops, Ukrainian aircraft carried out 16 airstrikes, striking 3 Russian strong points, 10 areas of concentration of Russian military personnel and equipment and 3 anti-aircraft defence systems,” Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Thursday.
It added that “Ukrainian air defence forces struck down 4 Russian UAVs and 4 Kh-59 guided cruise missiles.”
Ukraine’s General Staff also reported on Thursday that the country's Rocket Forces and Artillery "struck 2 command posts, 7 areas where Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment were concentrated, 1 repeater station, 3 electronic warfare stations, 2 ammunition storage points and a fuel and lubricants storage point."
Ukraine to seize Lyman?
Meanwhile, the US-based Institute for the Study of War said that “Ukrainian forces likely continued to make significant gains around Lyman [in Donetsk region] on September 28, advancing from the north along the Zelena Dolyna-Kolodiazi arc and from the southeast around Yampil.”
According to the US think tank, “the collapse of the Lyman pocket will likely be highly consequential to the Russian grouping in northern Donetsk and western Luhansk oblasts and may allow Ukrainian troops to threaten Russian positions along the western Luhansk Oblast border and in the Severodonetsk-Lysychansk area.”
Thursday is day 218 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, pravda.com.ua, understandingwar.org