Bloody and heavy fighting will continue in Kurakhove sector - head of AFU Council of Reservists

Ivan Tymochko, Chairman of the Council of Reservists of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, shared this opinion on Espreso TV.

‘This became clear when the Russians tried to blow up a dam near Stari Terny, expecting our defenses to be flooded and the enemy to penetrate further. Fortunately, they failed to blow up the dam. Now the occupying Russian forces are attacking south of the Kurakhove reservoir, as well as the village of Konstantynopol. They are trying to advance along the northern bank of the reservoir. The Russians want to gain a foothold along at least one bank of the reservoir in order to form a defense line with a sufficiently strong water barrier in front of them, and to send some troops to the Pokrovsk direction. The Russians need human resources there due to losses in manpower,’ he said.

The Russian troops are tasked with blocking the Zaporizhzhia-Donetsk road, which is important for the logistics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces located in Kurakhove. Therefore, unfortunately, very bloody and heavy fighting will continue in this area, Tymochko said.

‘The Pokrovsk direction is a priority for the enemy. We don't know yet whether the reserves mentioned by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have arrived, but this will become clear from the results of the fighting. We are entering the winter phase, with shorter daylight hours and deteriorating weather conditions, which will hamper the offensive forces more than the defensive ones. So we hope that by this time the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be able to hold the part of the town they control and the part of the reservoir they are able to hold,’ he concluded.

• On Friday, November 29, it was reported that Russian forces had succeeded south of Kurakhove in Donetsk region, where Ukrainian troops are facing encirclement.
• On November 30, the DeepState OSINT project reported that Russian terrorists continue to put pressure on Kurakhove from several directions, and that the aggressor has made significant progress in the town.
• Pavlo Lakiychuk, head of security programs at the Centre for Global Studies Strategy XXI, noted that if Russia captures Kurakhove, the Russian army will then concentrate all its forces on Pokrovsk.