Russia has 420,000 troops deployed in Ukraine − defense intelligence
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Russia has amassed over 420,000 troops in the occupied Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence reports.
The statement follows a quote from the Interfax-Ukraine news agency with reference to a statement by Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Chief of the DIU, during the annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kyiv.
Russia has amassed over 420,000 troops in our temporarily occupied territories and on the Crimean Peninsula. That's apart from the Russian National Guard, other bodies, special units, and the Russian security forces that support the occupying power in our territories.
Russia has a "very powerful" resource potential, he says. This includes numerous tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, multiple-launch rockets, and missile systems.
Despite the number of invaders, Russia has not achieved its strategic goal of complete Ukraine's occupation for more than a year and a half of its full-scale aggression.
The enemy has started changing its goals by aiming to entirely capture the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
The Russian occupiers are currently conducting the most active combat operations on eastern Kupiansk-Lyman and Marinka-Donetsk to complete at least one task and make it to the administrative borders of both regions.
To withstand Ukraine's advance, Russia started deploying more troops near liberated Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region from other fronts.
ISW analysts analyzed geolocation footage of Russian occupiers, which indicates that they advanced east of Kotlyarivka in the Kharkiv region.
Earlier, the commander of the Ground Forces Oleksandr Syrsky reported that active hostilities are taking place in the Serebriansky forest near Kreminna in the Luhansk region, as Ukrainian defenders continue to restrain the assaults of the Russian troops in the Lyman-Kupiansk direction.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar noted Russian forces carry out the most powerful assaults in the wiped out Marinka, but cannot take control of the city.
