During the national telemarathon on August 27, Illia Yevlash, press officer of the Ukrainian Eastern Grouping of Forces, informed that about 110,000 Russian troops are deployed in the Lyman-Kupiansk direction

“If we were to segment [their numbers], there would be 45,000 Russians [attacking] in the Kupiansk direction and 48,000 – in the Lyman direction.” 

Illia Yevlash

Yevlash noted that Russians are using their strategy of trying to succeed with numbers and barrages. He said they “are acting by what’s written in Soviet warfare textbooks: to seize a company or a command center, [you] need to use 40 thousand shells. So, that’s what they’re doing: methodically laying all these 40 thousand shells on a single square.” The efficiency of such an approach, Yevlash said, is questionable.  

Yevlash also pointed out that, on the Lyman-Kupiansk axis, Ukrainian troops currently have the advantageous highlands to “see enemy’s movements” and damage them “where it’s necessary.” 

On August 26, British Defence Intelligence reported that Russia would possibly “increase their offensive effort on the Kupiansk-Lyman axis” and aim to create a buffer zone around the Luhansk oblast, which they plan to occupy entirely. ISW, on the other hand, assesses in its latest brief that it’s unlikely due to Russians lacking manpower and material resources required to do that and conduct a larger offensive.

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