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A Ukrainian commander says Russian soldiers are advancing in eastern Ukraine due to dwindling ammunition supplies.
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According to the Financial Times, he partly blamed Kiev for sending resources to sustain the Kursk operation.
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At least 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been transferred to Kursk, officials said.
A commander of Ukraine’s artillery brigade says Russian soldiers are advancing in the east of the country, partly because Kiev has sent the necessary resources to strengthen its push into Russia’s Kursk region.
The unnamed commander said his soldiers had to ration cannon shells because the ammunition had been diverted for the military operation in Kursk, the Financial Times.
Ukraine launched its surprise offensive in the Russian border region on August 6, capturing approximately 386 miles of territory within a few days.
In a address Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the nation on Sunday that one of the goals of the operation was to create a “buffer zone.”
But the invasion has forced Ukraine to pull at least 10,000 troops from its 600-mile front in eastern Ukraine, including many of its elite airborne troops and mechanized brigades, officials involved in the operation told the FT.
According to a senior Ukrainian official familiar with military operations, defenses in Ukraine’s Donetsk region were already showing “cracks” in the days before soldiers were sent to Kursk.
But Ukraine is not alone in having to divert resources.
Russia also had to move its troops from the front line to Kursk.
Two anonymous senior US officials told CNN last week that several groups of Russian soldiers – each numbering at least 1,000 – had probably already been diverted to Kursk.
An anonymous person familiar with the Ukrainian operation said The Wall Street Journal Last week they reported that Russia had withdrawn some 5,000 troops from Ukraine to defend Kursk, but that it would likely need more than 20,000 trained soldiers to retake the region.
In a update On Sunday, the think tank The Institute for the Study of War said Russian moves from Ukraine to Kursk could weaken Russia’s ability to conduct offensive operations on its main front lines.
However, it is unclear whether this will be enough to prevent Russia from making significant advances in eastern Ukraine.
According to the ISW, neither Russia nor Ukraine can win the war with one decisive campaign, due to the scale of the conflict.
Read the original article at Company Insider
