Reserve Captain of the Ukrainian Naval Forces Andriy Ryzhenko expressed concern about the significant buildup of Russian Federation troops on the territory of Ukraine. According to him, the number of Russian fighters has increased to half a million, which increases the risks for a number of regional centers.
The situation along the entire front line remains quite difficult and the Russians have targets for a number of regional centers of Ukraine. This was stated by Captain 1st Rank Reserve of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Ryzhenko in a comment to “Espresso.TV”.
According to him, if you look at the overall picture of the fighting on the contact line, you can see that the Russian Armed Forces have concentrated an extremely large number of troops in the south and east. There may be about half a million of them along the entire front, and their task is to further destabilize the situation in Ukraine and influence the mood of the population.
"When the large-scale aggression began, there were 150 thousand military personnel in 7 different directions. Now their number in three directions is almost three times greater. The Russians have been tasked with capturing as much of the territory of the Donetsk region as possible and approaching such regional centers as Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Sumy, and Kharkiv in order to regularly shell them with long-range artillery and anti-aircraft guided missiles at a distance of 50-70 km," said Andriy Ryzhenko.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is analyzing the current situation in order to maximally deter the enemy from carrying out strategic tasks related to a number of regional centers in the future, said the captain of the 1st rank of the reserve of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ughledar in the Donetsk region, from which the fighters of the Defense Forces withdrew the day before, is one of the points that the Russian occupiers have been trying to capture for a long time and serious forces were used for this. The occupation of the city is certainly an unpleasant fact, but if you look at the strategic picture, then this will not have a significant effect on the Russians.
"Indeed, there was contradictory information about the situation there, but we must trust the position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was very difficult there, since the Russian army uses attrition tactics, overwhelming the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a large number of weapons, anti-tank guided missiles, artillery, rocket artillery, etc.," Andriy Ryzhenko concluded.
As a reminder, on September 26, it was reported whether the Russian Armed Forces could cross the Dnieper and retake Kherson. According to the representative of the Southern Defense Forces, Vladislav Voloshyn, the Ukrainian military currently has the entire island part of the Dnieper and any approaches to Kherson. The Russians are not taking any preparatory steps to cross in the future.
On September 24, it was reported that with adequate Western support, Ukraine could launch a counteroffensive in 2025, The Washington Post reported. However, this would also require the mobilization and expansion of the defense industry, the journalists noted.
