Russians intensify assault on Toretsk, redeploying forces from two areas – military

According to Ukrinform, the spokesman for the Luhansk operational and tactical group Dmytro Zaporozhets said this on television.

“The enemy has focused its main efforts on capturing the city of Toretsk and is actively pressing, including because the forces of the 150th motorized rifle division and some units withdrawn from the Kurakhove and Pokrovsk directions were deployed in this area. The activity of assault operations has increased. Today we can say that this is the average daily number of assault actions over the past week. Artillery activity in the Toretsk sector has also increased due to the fact that units from other sectors were deployed there,” said Zaporozhets.

According to him, if last month the number of enemy artillery attacks ranged from 30 to 80, now the invaders are systematically carrying out more than 100 attacks. The tactics of their small assault groups have also changed.

“The number of people in the assault has increased. If earlier it was two or three or four soldiers, then, for example, this week it was from two to ten. This is a full-fledged unit that can attack a particular position. They are also using motorcycles to get to the central part of the city. They do not always manage to keep these motorcycles intact, but they are nevertheless used to transport personnel,” noted the spokesman.

Mr. Zaporozhets noted that the occupants conduct assault operations from four or five in the morning whenever possible and finish in the afternoon, but suffer considerable losses.

“The aviation component has increased since the beginning of January and continues to grow. Over the past day, 25 air strikes and 31 unexploded ordnance were dropped on the settlements in our area of responsibility. Kostyantynivka is currently suffering the most,” he summarized.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, a total of 138 combat engagements took place between Ukrainian defenders and Russian troops yesterday, one third of them in the Pokrovsk sector.

Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine