Russia deploys additional forces to Zaporizhzhia direction, digs in Kherson region - Operational Command South

In the area of responsibility of the Operational Command South, the Russian invaders are not creating strike groups, but are trying to transfer additional capabilities to the Zaporizhzhia direction to stop the advance of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

According to Ukrinform, this was stated by Natalia Humeniuk, head of the Joint Press Center of the Operational Command South, during the 'United News' telethon, commenting on the situation in the Kherson region.

"At the moment, we do not observe the creation of critical strike groups in our area of responsibility, but we see powerful maneuvers, they are trying to replace some forces with others, trying to transfer additional capacities to the Zaporizhzhia direction. We would like to reinforce the Kherson direction as well, but so far we do not have such critical reserves, although we see the reformatting of the groups. Obviously, they are trying to calculate which directions will be the most threatening for them," noted Humeniuk.

Read also: Russia attacks Zaporizhzhia with Iskanders and Kh-35 yesterday - police

She clarified that it is not a question of the occupants opening the frontline, but of redeploying more powerful assault units to the hot directions where the Defense Forces are advancing. Other units of Russian troops are currently forming defensive lines in the Kherson region.

The head of the joint press center also noted that after the pseudo-elections held by the invaders in the temporarily occupied territories, they have actually formed a mobilization resource of the local population.

"After the pseudo-elections, which they held for themselves and for purely internal consumption, they tried to collect as much information as possible about the number of people who could be mobilized. And now the male population is actually registered, and they are being used to form so-called territorial defense units, which they interpret as protecting their own settlement, with the subsequent transfer to the general mobilization reserve of the occupation forces," said Humeniuk.

Read also: Over past day, Russian army shells Zaporizhzhia region more than hundred times

As reported, the day before, the Kherson Regional Defense Council decided to mandatorily evacuate families with children from settlements that are constantly shelled by Russia.