Russia concentrated 50,000 soldiers in the area of Sumy - WSJ
The Russian offensive on the amount occurs on the background of the fact that US President Donald Trump has begun to express the growing disappointment of the Kremlin's reluctance to become a mediator in the ceasefire. Although meetings between Ukrainian and Russian officials continued in Turkey in the last weeks, Moscow has intensified its missile and unmanned attacks on Ukrainian cities in the same period.
Over the past year, the front line has increased by more than 160 km, said the Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces Alexander Sirsky, and now it has stretched more than 120 km in the arc from northeast to south. "The Russians probate different places throughout the front line, and then come when they find what is exposed, as they did in the Sumy region. This forces Ukrainian commanders to play" beat the mole ", sending elite units to help to hold the breaks," the material said.
Earlier this month, Ukraine sent luxury detachments to commando from its military intelligence department, known as GUR to help stabilize the situation. Since then, the Russian offensive in Sumy has been stopped largely, and Ukraine has won part of the territory. "Now we are looking for ways to carry out our own attacks and discard the enemy.
Their numbers are a big problem for us, though insufficient to overcome us," said Timur, a special purpose detachment commander, which is fighting in the region for several weeks. Timur notes that Russians lose from 300 to 400 people a day throughout the region, but they can cope with losses, constantly tightening reserves. He said that recently his group, about 12 fighters, encountered a Russian assault group in the Sumy region.
Over the next seven hours, they were clamped in the trench, as the Russians, who significantly outweigh them in number, tried to surround them. "It was the most severe battle that I ever participated. They attacked infantry, drones, grenade launchers, machine guns, artillery, cassette ammunition. Everyone . . . We never had more than a five-minute break while they were regrouping," said Mark.
According to him, his detachment was eliminated by five Russians, but according to him, these Russian troops were better prepared than the ones he encountered. The journalists of The Wall Street Journal watched records from the cameras provided by the Ukrainian military and noted that the Ukrainian machine gunner made 5500 shots during the battle. Later, the Ukrainians decided to retreat and returned without loss.
The Ukrainian military also complain that defensive structures were not prepared in the Sumy region. They also complained that the areas that the Russians now advance were not replaced. "As if they were preparing for tank columns, not to the battlefield, where dozens of drones were struck daily. Every day when the position is not ready, it is a day when someone may not return," said one infantry commander named Cyril, who fought in the Kursk region, and is now in Sumy region.
Last week, answering the fortification questions, the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov said that the defense lines in Sumy were being improved. "The fortification is not only concrete and trench, it is an adaptive engineering system that takes into account the tactics of the enemy and always serves one purpose: protection of our soldiers," Umerov said.
We will remind, earlier Alexander Sirsky stated that the Ukrainian military stopped the promotion of Russian invaders in the border areas of Sumy region. The line of combat collision is stabilized. And the deputy chairman of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, Volodymyr Babich, reported that the likelihood of occupation of sums is excluded, despite the fact that the region is severely suffering from shelling, and the line of combat collision in the region is now about 45 kilometers.