470,000 Russian troops deployed in occupied territories – Ukraine’s intelligence

Russia's ground force located on the territory of the occupied Ukraine amounts to about 470,000 soldiers, Ukraine's intelligence officer Vadym Skibitskyi says.

This number does not include aviation and naval forces.

The intelligence member said that a new component of the Russian troops has appeared in the occupied territories, known as Russian Guard amounting to 33,000 soldiers.

"These are the people who ensure the activities of the occupation authorities, the protection of strategic facilities and, if necessary, can perform defense tasks in the temporarily occupied territories."

A group of the "state border protection" has been added. 30,000 soldiers are deployed in three regions of Russia that directly border Ukraine.

The major general emphasized that this is due to the fear of the Russians that "we will be more active, we will carry out appropriate actions on the territory of Russia."

Skibitskyi also emphasized that an important change over the past two years is the isolation of the Black Sea Fleet, and all the enemy's main warships are in Novorossiysk.

Ukrainian soldiers continue to inflict losses in manpower and equipment on the occupation forces, depleting the enemy along the entire front line.

On February 20, Ukrainian troops repelled 20 enemy attacks near Marinka, held their positions and repelled the assaults near Kherson.

Ukrainian forces also eliminated more than 1,100 enemy troops, bringing the total losses of Russian troops since the beginning of the full-scale war to more than 406,000 soldiers.

British intelligence claims that the Russian army lacks the combat capability to take advantage of the effect of the capture of Avdiivka.

ISW experts believe that Russian troops will have to take an operational pause before resuming offensive operations or transfer reinforcements from other parts of the front to prevent the culmination of operations near Avdiivka.

The day before, the Ukrainian military probably struck a formation of Russian motorized riflemen in the occupied part of Donetsk region, while tthe soldiers were waiting for the commander.