“Take in two weeks” – Putin orders capture of Donetsk by Sep. 15

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian forces to fully capture the Donetsk region by Sep. 15. This was announced on Sep. 1 by the Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff, Oleksiy Hromov, at a briefing among representatives of the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine.

According to Hromov, the enemy is regrouping its troops of the Central Military District from Luhansk-Donetsk towards the Kurakhiv direction. He also noted that Russia is transferring the recently formed third army corps to the border with Ukraine. However, it is currently unknown where exactly the Russian command plans to strike.

“According to received data and due to significant losses in personnel, the higher command of the Russian Federation has made a decision to disband 31 separate airborne assault brigades and 22 special purpose brigades. Taking into account these losses, less than 20 percent of the personnel are still alive”, Hromov said.

The Deputy Chief also reported that following the restoration of their combat capability, the Russians entered single battalion-tactical groups in both the Slovyanskyi and Mykolaivskyi directions.

“The enemy continues to hold territory in Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, and is also trying to create conditions for resuming the offensive,” Hromov said.

In addition, he emphasized that the occupiers are once again adjusting their plans and actions in accordance with Putin’s order to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk region by Sep. 15.

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British intelligence reported on Aug. 27 that Russia had significantly increased the intensity of hostilities in Donbas in order to prevent a counteroffensive by the Ukrainian military.

However, in an interview for Radio NV on Aug. 26, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Sergei Gaidai, stated that, in his opinion, the advance of the Russian army in Donbas is ten times slower than the Kremlin demands.

“The Kremlin sets a task for its troops to cover up to five kilometers per day, but this is a fantasy.  Sometimes the Russian army can’t even walk 100 meters in a day,” Gaidai said.

But if the Russian army does advance in the Donbas, the Kremlin will not stop there and will try to seize new territories.  Moreover, new divisions are already being formed for this purpose. This was reported by Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense Vadym Skibitsky in an interview with The Guardian on July 31.