The Russian military is now preparing for defensive operations and forming 2 to 3 lines of defense in different areas of the front.

Vadym Skibitskyi, Representative of the MoD’s Defence Intelligence, shared this in his interview with Kyiv Post.

He noted that the Russian military has problems establishing the reserves. Therefore, the invaders cannot strike in response to the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“According to the Defence Intelligence, the Russian troops are actively preparing for the defense operations. They build their first- and second-line defensive positions. In fact, they did this in the south of Ukraine, in the Kherson region. When Russian troops captured these territories, the defense was immediately organized – at least two or even three lines. They are now trying to set up reserves to regain their positions. We clearly see that they have problems with this,” said Skibitskyi.

In February and spring, the enemy threw its main forces into the territory of Ukraine. From mid-summer, it became clear how difficult it was for the invaders to set up the reserves.

“The 3rd Army Corps, which, as they said, will be formed by mid-August – has not yet been fully established and does not act as a single combat unit. They started to scatter it again in different directions,” Skibitsky emphasized.

This, according to the Intelligence, indicates the problems with reserves that the invaders have. The Russian army lacks personnel.

Mykola Bielieskov, an Analyst at the Come Back Alive Foundation, is of the same opinion. He shared this in his interview with Yarema Dukh.

He emphasized that at the moment, the Russians should focus on arranging the frontline, in particular east of the Oskol River in the Kharkiv region. However, this requires diverting the forces from other directions of the front.

“Their main problem is the 1300 km of the active frontline with very little forces. What Russia has at the forefront is 300 thousand groups, but I don’t think that all those 300 thousand are today on the front line. Maybe half are there, maybe two-thirds. That is, if around 200 thousand are there, you can divide those 200 thousand by 1300 km of the border and get a concentration of forces and equipment – it will be scarce. This was their main problem, and we aggravated it. We claimed a month and a half before the beginning of September that we would be advancing in the south, and they actually moved significant Russian forces there. As a result, the Russians did not have enough power in places where we attacked them. Not just lack of forces, they also had a very weak front line, which we broke through very quickly,” said Mykola Bielieskov.

He also noted that the enemy should take measures to strengthen its own border.

The so-called “mobilization” in Russia, according to Mykola Bielieskov, will not significantly affect the current situation. The analyst believes that the measures that are now being undertaken by the Russians do not compensate for the losses of the regular army personnel and heavy equipment.

Previously, a video on how the owner of Wagner PMC is personally recruiting prisoners to participate in the war against Ukraine was released online.