Russians pulling motley crew of troops into Ukraine’s eastern operational zone – army spox

The enemy is drawing all possible types of troops into the operational zone of Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, including paratroopers and a number of PMCs.

That’s according to the spokesman for Operational Command East, Serhiy Cherevatyi, who spoke on the air of the national telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"They are pulling all kinds of units into our operational area – these are airborne units, infantry, the Bars combat reserve, territorial forces, and a number of other smaller PMCs such as Patriot, Fakel, and Veterans. The latest were the Storm Z assault companies. This replica of Wagner Group was established under the Military Draft Offices. There are probably more than 170,000 of them in our operational zone," he said.

Cherevatyi emphasized that the number is the only advantage that remains with the enemy, but the Ukrainian Defense Forces do not allow this advantage to be utilized to achieve actual major successes.

"Being more trained and motivated, we force the enemy to retreat," noted the spokesman for Group East.

According to him, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, National Guard, and Special Operations Center A of the SBU are decimating enemy equipment with maximum accuracy. Cherevatyi emphasized that almost every enemy target is hit in up to two shots.

"The enemy doesn't have that precision because unfortunately they still have quite a large volume of these shells. We don't have that luxury, so this forced us to do our job at our best quality," he explained.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Ukraine’s Defense Forces advanced from 600 to 1,000 meters on the southern and northern flanks around Bakhmut on Sunday.