Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s commander in chief, said on Thursday that Moscow was redeploying troops toward Vovchansk and Lyptsi, two villages near the city of Kharkiv that Russian forces have been trying to capture for more than two weeks.
Other officials have also said that Russia has massed troops further north, across from the Ukrainian region of Sumy, in preparation for a possible ground offensive in that area.
“These forces are not enough to launch a full-scale offensive and break through our defenses,” General Syrsky wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Still, he said, a reorganization of Ukrainian defenses in the area was underway to be prepared to repel assaults.
Commanders have been forced to move troops to the north to shore up defenses while waiting for Western weapons in numbers big enough to have an impact.
Persons:
Oleksandr Syrsky, Syrsky
Organizations:
Russian, Facebook
Locations:
Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Vovchansk, Kharkiv, Ukrainian, Sumy