Russian forces have largely abandoned efforts to seize more territory in Ukraine and switched to defensive positions ahead of Kyiv’s counter-offensive, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence said.
Kyrylo Budanov said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s forces were mainly concentrating offensive operations on trying to capture Bakhmut, where fighting has been raging for months, and the nearby towns of nearby Avdiivka and Marinka in the eastern Donbas region, saying “they want to wipe the settlements off the face of the earth.”
