Russians attempting to push further into Zaporizhzhia region – military spox

According to Ukrinform, this was reported by Vladyslav Voloshyn, Spokesperson for the Southern Defense Forces, during a television broadcast.

"The military-political leadership of the Russian Federation has never concealed the fact that... Zaporizhzhia region is within their geopolitical interests. Therefore, it can be said that before any negotiation processes regarding a ceasefire or the establishment of various regimes and halts to hostilities begin, the Russians want to gain as much of an advantage as possible, pushing further into Zaporizhzhia region. If they have the opportunity, they aim to reach the administrative borders of the region," Voloshyn stated.

He emphasized that this is one of the reasons why the situation in southern Ukraine, particularly in the Zaporizhzhia direction, is beginning to escalate. The invaders have also amassed a certain amount of forces and resources in these directions for conducting assault operations with small infantry groups.

"The tactic of using these small groups has yielded some results for Russia in other directions of the front, which is why they will try to employ this creeping advance strategy and assaults by small infantry groups in the Zaporizhzhia direction as well. This specifically concerns the Orikhiv and Huliaipole sectors. Since the beginning of spring, the number of such assaults in this area has significantly increased," Voloshyn added.

As Ukrinform reported, over the past day, March 27, there were 209 recorded combat engagements between Ukraine's Defense Forces and Russian oinvaders along the front line.