Russian troops fail to concentrate reserves across all fronts despite manpower advantage — expert

Defense Express military expert Ivan Kyrychevskyi reported the information.

"The Russians managed to concentrate a force of over 53,000 troops for offensive actions in the Sumy region. But it’s not as if 250 soldiers are fighting while the rest are just relaxing. The Russians have various nuances. For example, they have to allocate a certain number of personnel to provide support in that 15-kilometer kill zone where both our and their drones are actively operating. Therefore, the entire Russian group concentrated in the Sumy direction was involved in combat operations," Kyrychevskyi explained.

The expert emphasized that today the main priority for the invading Russian army remains Eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, their attempts to advance in the Sumy region have failed.

"On the other hand, it turns out that this 53,000-strong group of occupying Russian troops, which they concentrated on for offensive actions in the Sumy region, is the maximum number they managed to gather there. Even if the Russians have a formal advantage over us in personnel, they still cannot concentrate these reserves as they would like along all directions. 

They have to set priorities. Their priority today is eastern Ukraine. The reports about the stabilization of the front in the Sumy region can be interpreted as meaning that the Russians definitely will not be able to take Sumy and move forward. However, this does not mean that they will be pushed back to the state border in the near future. 

The situation may develop similarly to the fighting in the Vovchansk direction, where they were stalled for three weeks, but it took several months to push them back to their initial positions. 

It is possible to imagine that the Russians will stop prioritizing Donbas and start transferring reserves to the Sumy region, but then their command structure would begin to collapse, which would be a very good gift for us. Therefore, the situation today is such that the Sumy region is becoming a secondary priority for the invaders, and they will focus their attention primarily on eastern Ukraine," he added.

• On June 25, 154 combat clashes were recorded on the Russian-Ukrainian front. In the Pokrovsk direction, Ukrainian defenders stopped 51 assault actions by the aggressor.

• On June 26, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that as of today, the advance of Russian troops in the border areas of Sumy region has been stopped, and the line of contact has stabilized.