Heavy fighting continued in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s Kursk region as Kyiv’s army said it would learn lessons from severe problems, including large-scale desertion, that have dogged a high-profile brigade that France helped to train and arm.
The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that nearly 100 clashes had taken place in the previous 24 hours in Kursk province, which borders northern Ukraine, and that it had launched a “high-precision strike” on a command post for Russian marines in the area.
“The strike and a series of recent operations against Russian units in Kursk region were co-ordinated with the Ukrainian ground forces, who are currently commencing new offensive operations against the Russian armed forces,” Kyiv said.
Russia said its ground forces and military aircraft had inflicted damage on Kyiv’s units in Kursk and the neighbouring Sumy region of Ukraine, a day after claiming to have seized control of the town of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
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“The situation in Kurakhove is quite difficult at the moment, as a large part of the town has been destroyed. Ukrainian troops are holding the western part of the town ... They also control the power plant located in the town,” Ukrainian military spokesman Viktor Trehubov said on Tuesday.
“The Russians are just trying to destroy all the buildings, even low-rise buildings in the town. When the town is completely destroyed, there is simply no place to maintain a defence because there are virtually no fortifications ... It is impossible to hold defence there if there are no houses, just scorched earth.”
Kurakhove is about 30km south of Pokrovsk, a small city and long-time logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in the area, which appears to be Russia’s next key target.
Senior Ukrainian military officials have pledged to resolve and learn from problems that have afflicted the 155th separate mechanised brigade, which was deployed to the Pokrovsk area last November after about 2,000 of its members were sent to France for training; the unit is also known as “Anna of Kyiv”, after a princess who married French king Henri I in the 11th century.
A Ukrainian media investigation revealed that the brigade had been beset by incompetent and chaotic organisation and a lack of vital drones and electronic warfare equipment, and that some 1,700 of its troops – nearly 30 per cent of its personnel – had gone absent without leave, including dozens who fled while in France.
“Of course, this is a negative lesson, a negative experience,” said Ukrainian ground forces commander Mykhailo Drapatyi. “There are problems, and there were problems in staffing, training and partly in the command structure. All this is being carefully analysed and certain conclusions have been drawn.”
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