Russia may be deploying new army in Ukraine: military expert explains why

He spoke about this on Espreso TV.

"There are actually nuances here. Two Ukrainian spokespersons said that one motorized infantry brigade from the 51st Army is being redeployed to the Kharkiv direction. This is the first time the 51st Army has been mentioned without any details. The size of the army can vary, it can range from 20,000 to 50,000, but these are theoretical calculations. Because now, against the backdrop of the Russians' desire to form new structures, all these formations have a rather limited number and limited weapons," Zgurets said.

"We are now assuming that the Russians have about 170,000 personnel stretched along the front line. The total reserves are about 60,000-70,000," he noted.

"The issue of the army is rather a process of forming new units, from which more or less ready-made units are actually pulled out to plug holes at the front or to form some offensive capabilities. If it is a separate semi-formed brigade from the still unformed 51st Army that is thrown to the Kharkiv direction, it means that the enemy's losses are such that it does not have time to form the declared armies and uses what is available on the battlefield," Zgurets summarized.

• ISW analysts analyzed the likelihood of Russia creating a new combined arms army to redeploy forces to the Kharkiv direction.