Russians use about 30 thousand shells daily

The West estimates that Russia has lost more than 60,000 troops in its attempts to capture the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, Sky News reports. UNN asked Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, what has changed on the Eastern Front since the start of the rotation of the occupiers in Bakhmut.

- Mr. Cherevatyi, what is happening in Bakhmut now? Have the "Wagner" militants left the city?

The enemy is currently undergoing a rotation process, withdrawing units of the Wagner criminal organization, while enemy airborne troops and motorized infantry troops are being deployed, and they are trying to cover this with artillery and aviation fire. Over the past day, 452 attacks and 6 air raids took place. We are hitting their troops who are trying to rotate. Over the last day, Ukrainian forces killed 107 occupants, 126 were wounded, and destroyed an infantry fighting vehicle, 7 different types of guns, an electronic warfare station, a self-propelled artillery system, three ammunition depots and four vehicles. The Russian units that come to Wagner's place are not motivated, because they see the defeated units of Wagner's men, they see the destroyed city, they know what the dynamics of the fighting was and they know the potential strength of our units that are standing there. So they are somewhat demoralized, and I can't say that they are set up for any super-aggressive offensive actions.

- Do our forces manage to counterattack?

We are not currently conducting an offensive in the Bakhmut sector, we have been conducting a defensive operation there for many months in a row. It was a very successful operation, because its main task was to disrupt the enemy's strategic offensive, prevent it from systematically breaking through our defense and inflicting maximum possible losses on the Russians. All of these tasks were accomplished. The enemy failed to develop a strategic offensive, failed to break through our defense, neither surrounded nor forced our troops to flee, and yet suffered enormous losses. The proof of this is the latent surrender of the Wagner units, who, under the guise of loud slogans of "capturing Bakhmut," are actually trying to leave quickly to preserve some remnants of combat capability. As part of this defensive operation, we occasionally conducted counterattacks in certain areas where we saw that the enemy was weakened. When we saw that we were taking minimal risks, we counterattacked, and as a result of these attacks on certain flanks, in particular the southern and northern flanks around Bakhmut, we managed to advance by a distance of several hundred meters to two kilometers.

- Are the Russians planning a breakthrough in the Donetsk region?

Our groups have prevented the enemy from significantly deteriorating and gaining significant military advantages. As we discussed in the previous question, we have forced the Russians to systematically change their plans and change the units fighting there. They have suffered enormous losses. There is no risk of an enemy breakthrough.

- What is the current situation in Luhansk and Kharkiv regions (Liman-Kupyansk direction)?

The enemy is also trying to conduct attacks there. Over the past day, it tried to do so 11 times, as I said, firing 632 times at our positions. In most cases, all these attacks end in one scenario: they receive a powerful response and retreat with losses. On this day, for example, 58 occupants were killed in this direction, 94 were wounded and two were captured. In addition, 7 tanks were hit, 11 vehicles, two mortars, an anti-tank gun and a kamikaze drone were destroyed.

- What is the most annoying for the Ukrainian military in the Eastern sector?

The enemy is using a fairly large group and all types of weapons. The most annoying thing is artillery and rockets. This war has shown that unlike the theoretical developments, because before the war, theorists said that only aviation and unmanned systems would play a significant role. This war has shown that in such a massive war, with a large number of troops, artillery is very important, and this is a factor that both we and the enemy have to take into account. Unfortunately, the enemy now has more guns and shells. Every day he uses several tens of thousands of shells in our operational area. Somewhere around 30 thousand daily. If last summer the enemy could use unlimited ammunition along the entire front line, now it has somewhat reduced its capacity, but in those areas where it concentrates its main efforts it can still hit quite hard. This is the main factor that affects the course of hostilities in terms of damage. But we compensate for the enemy's advantage in the number of shells by the quality of combat missions and make the most of all our artillery, including that provided by our partners.

"The President of Ukraine expressed hope for Azerbaijan's active involvement in supporting our country's initiatives to achieve a sustainable and just peace based on the Ukrainian peace formula," the Presidential Administration said.

Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 03/06/2023