The aggressor country Russia has deployed the newly created 25th Combined Arms Army to allow units in the Luhansk region to redeploy to southern Ukraine. The occupiers hope to hold off a Ukrainian counteroffensive with the additional forces.

The formed "reserve" army will replace units of the 35th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade and the 90th Tank Division in the Luhansk region, which participated there in the failed Russian offensive operation in the winter of 2023. This is stated in the analysis of the Institute for the Study of War.

The mentioned units operated at the brigade and regiment level without rotation like many advanced Russian units throughout the entire theater of operations. The analysts emphasized that the lack of operational reserves forced the Russian command to conduct further redeployments and make difficult decisions about which parts of the front to prioritize.

The aggressor country's command has redeployed the recently formed and likely low-quality and understaffed 25th Combined Arms Army to the Luhansk region to free up relatively more effective units for redeployment to southern Ukraine.

According to ISW analysts, the 25th Combined Arms Army is unlikely to be capable, given its hasty deployment and the estimated deployment date of December 2023. Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the Defense Ministry had formed a "reserve army" that began recruiting personnel from Russia's Far East in mid-May 2023.

It is reported that the 25th "reserve" army will consist of 30,000 contract personnel in two motorized rifle divisions, as well as an undetermined number of tank and artillery divisions. At the same time, the head of the DIU Kyrylo Budanov said that Russian forces had formed the 25th Combined Arms Army as a "strategic" reserve and did not intend to bring this unit into combat readiness earlier than October or November 2023.

It is worth noting that additional Russian redeployments and the immediate allocation of operational reserves suggest that short-term reinforcement needs are hindering the intended long-term efforts to restore the army's combat readiness.

The soldiers of the Ukrainian Defense Forces are trying to break through the main defense line of the Russian Federation in the southeast. They are attacking the occupants' positions near the settlement of Verbove. Thus, the Ukrainian army plans to "reach" critical Russian logistics lines in the area of Tokmak by artillery.

Earlier, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that the Defense Forces had advanced by several kilometers into the positions of the occupants between the villages of Rabotyne and Verbove in the Zaporizhzhia region in 72 hours.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges said that Ukraine will not be safe and will not be able to restore its economy until the temporarily occupied Crimea is not released.

Only verified information from us on Telegram Obozrevatel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!