Russia redeploys troops from Sumy to launch attacks in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine says

He said this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

According to Syrskyi, Russian forces continue their offensive, but are now regrouping and focusing on two directions.

"This is the Pokrovsk direction, which remains decisive for the Russians. And now the enemy is moving its units from Sumy to the Zaporizhzhia direction. This will be the second direction where they plan to launch active offensive actions," he said.

At the same time, the commander-in-chief stressed that low-intensity fighting is now taking place in Zaporizhzhia.

In the Pokrovsk direction, however, Russia uses the "thousand cuts" tactic – attacks by small groups.

"They had some success when their groups advanced 10–12 km to several of our settlements and suddenly appeared there. Why did this happen? Because the terrain there has many ravines, rivers – areas whose natural features allow covert movement. And in summer there is also a lot of vegetation, which makes it hard to control the line of combat contact," Syrskyi explained.

He added that there is no continuous front line in that area, which Russian troops used to advance.

"But after a number of decisive measures were taken, additional forces and means of our airborne units were deployed, we cleared settlements and areas, and the enemy's victorious mood turned to despair… Everything came to its logical conclusion," said the Commander-in-Chief, referring to the infiltration of Russian groups near Dobropillya.

• Meanwhile, the head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, Petro Andryuschenko, said on August 18 that Russia resumed supplies of tanks and armored personnel carriers to the Zaporizhzhia region.