Russia is increasing the speed of its offensive operation to establish full control over the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as to establish a sustainable land corridor to occupied Crimea.
Defense Ministry press officer Oleksandr Motuzianyk told this at a briefing, Radio Liberty reports.
“The enemy is increasing the speed of the offensive operation. The aggressor is exerting intensive fire activity in almost all directions. The maximum activity of the occupants is observed in the Slobozhansk and Donetsk directions, while the occupants are preparing additional units to participate in combat operations,” Motuzianyk reported.
The Ukrainian military recorded 138 sorties by the russian Aerospace Forces, at least 38 of them hitting targets in Kharkiv and Donbas.
In the Slobozhansk direction, the invaders continue to shell Kharkiv, trying to establish full control over the village of Velyka Komyshuvaha, 20 kilometers southwest of Izyum, as well as to capture the village of Kurulka, 20 kilometers south of the occupied city.
Russia is also continuing to increase the grouping of missile forces in the Belgorod region of russia, near Degtyarnoe (30 kilometers from the border with Ukraine). A battery of the Iskander-M Tactical Ballistic Missile System has been deployed here.
In the Donetsk region, occupation forces are concentrating their offensive in the Severodonetsk, Popasna, and Kurakhiv directions, trying to take full control of Popasna, and Rubizhne, and extend their offensive to Lyman, Severodonetsk, and Sloviansk. Shelling of besieged Mariupol continues.
In the Tavriia and Pivdennobuzhsky directions, russia holds its boundaries.
“The military operations are expected to intensify in the Kryvyy Rih and Mykolayiv directions, in the areas of Osokorivka, Trudolyubivka, Novovorontsovka, and Pravdynne and Tavriisk, respectively. The occupant's goal here is to reach the administrative boundaries of the Kherson region,” Motuzianyk stated.
The command also records a prolonged threat of missile and air strikes from the territory of Belarus.
According to the UAF General Staff, the russians moved two battalion tactical groups to Izyum and deployed two missile divisions of the Iskander-M Tactical Ballistic Missile System near the border.