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A bit more from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessment earlier, in which the US-based think tank said Russian forces were continuing to suffer shortages of reserve manpower.
An unnamed US defense official reported that Russian forces still have 106 BTGs (battalion tactical groups) operating in Ukraine but had to disband and combine some to compensate for losses.
Ukrainian general staff main operations deputy chief Oleksiy Gromov reported that Russian forces are combining units of the Pacific and Northern Fleets at the permanent locations of the 40th Separate Marine Brigade and the 200th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, respectively.
Gromov added that Russian forces are training servicemen in Krasnodar Krai to replenish units of the 49th Combined Arms Army and are trying to restore combat power of Russian units withdrawn from the battlefront in occupied Crimea.
The ISW also said Ukrainian officials were reporting that some Russian troops withdrawn from the failed offensive around the city of Kharkiv had been redeployed to Donetsk, in the Donbas, to replace the “significant combat losses that the 107th Motorized Rifle Battalion has taken approximately 20 km southwest of Donetsk City.”
It added:
The Ukrainian Military Directorate (GUR) intercepted a Russian serviceman’s call suggesting that some of the 400 servicemen from the Kharkiv City axis who had arrived elsewhere in Donbas were shocked by the intensity of the fighting there compared with what they had experienced in Kharkiv Oblast.
