Up to five Russian BTGs remain on border with Ukraine - General Staff

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in an update on the Russian invasion as of 18:00 on April 26, Ukrinform reports.

"In the areas of the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, the Russian occupiers continue to keep field camps to restore combat readiness and train units. According to available information, up to five battalion tactical groups of the enemy are in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine's state border," the statement said.

According to the statement, groupings of enemy troops are conducting an offensive operation in the Eastern Operational Zone. Their main goal is to encircle and defeat Ukrainian Joint Forces, establish full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and create a land corridor with the occupied Crimea.

The enemy continues to launch missile and bomb strikes on military and civilian infrastructure.

In the Slobozhanshchyna area, enemy groupings from the 6th Combined Arms Army of the Western Military District, the coastal troops of the Baltic and Northern Fleets continue to partially block the city of Kharkiv.

In the Izium area, enemy units and subdivisions of the 1st Guards Tank Army, the 20th and 35th Combined Arms Armies, the 68th Army Corps and the Airborne Forces, supported by artillery, are advancing toward the settlement of Barvinkove. In order to reconnoiter the positions of Ukrainian troops, the enemy continues to use UAVs in this area.

In the Donetsk area, the enemy is active almost along almost the entire line of contact. The main efforts are focused on taking control of Rubizhne, Popasna and Marinka.

To develop the offensive in the direction of the settlement of Lyman, the enemy is building up a grouping of troops.

Russian invaders do not stop artillery shelling and air strikes on Mariupol. The blocking of units of Ukrainian troops in the area of the Azovstal steel plant continues.

In the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, units of the operational grouping of Russian troops have been put on alert.