Ukrainian Armed Forces discuss 'atypical behavior' of Russian army in Zaporizhzhia direction
Photo: Russian soldiers (Getty Images)
In the Zaporizhzhia direction, no assault actions by Russian troops have been recorded over the past three days, which is unusual behavior for the enemy, according to the spokesperson for the Tavria operational group of troops, Dmytro Lykhoviy.
"The operational situation in the Tavria operational group is characterized by a decrease in the intensity of combat actions. In the part concerning the Zaporizhzhia region, there have been no assault actions by the Russians over the past three days," said Lykhoviy.
According to him, this is noteworthy because the area is large, and it is clear that "the Russians have not disappeared from here," but there have been no assaults for three days, and today there is also no significant activity.
The spokesperson noted that Ukrainian troops will monitor the situation, as this behavior by the Russian troops is "atypical for the recent large period."
"Some activity, if it can be called that, continues in the Dnipro direction, where the enemy does not cease attempts to drive our units off the footholds on the left bank of the Dnipro. However, yesterday there was only one enemy assault on our positions near the village of Krynky," added Lykhoviy.
He noted that the enemy's assaults were unsuccessful, and there had been no loss of positions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The spokesperson also mentioned that he would not link these events to the Kursk operation because the Russian troops do not have the resources to conduct effective offensive actions on multiple fronts simultaneously.
"There are some grounds to say that, for example, the number of artillery shelling on our positions is also partially decreasing. It’s not exactly a calm period, but, for instance, over the past day there were 280 Russian shellings of our positions using approximately 1,450 shells. This is a reduction of hundreds or even half a thousand shells compared to a month ago," he said.
At the same time, according to Lykhoviy, enemy aviation remains active. The Russian army conducted six airstrikes and also launched six guided bombs and 60 unguided rockets in both the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions.
Despite this, Ukrainian forces are inflicting significant losses on the enemy.
"Over the past day, the Russian army has been reduced by 69 personnel. This includes both irretrievable and sanitary losses combined. Also, 25 units of weapons and military equipment were destroyed, including one armored combat vehicle, one RP-1 Ulybka (Smile) radio-pelengation meteorological complex, four artillery systems, among them one S-60 anti-aircraft missile system, 10 vehicles, five reconnaissance UAVs, three boats, and one jet ski," the spokesperson reported.
Frontline situation
According to the General Staff, today, August 20, there have been 87 enemy attacks on the front. The Russian forces are most active in the Pokrovsk direction, where they have conducted more than a third of all attacks.
At the same time, yesterday the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that the intensity of fighting in southern Ukraine is decreasing. However, Russian troops are actively using aviation.
Additionally, over the past day, Russian forces have lost 1,330 soldiers, 26 armored combat vehicles, 52 artillery systems, and other equipment.
The total losses of the Russian army since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine are estimated to be around 601,800 soldiers.
