Russian forces are trying to reach the border of Donetsk and Luhansk regions - the General Staff

Valentyna Romanenko — Thursday, 17 March 2022

Russian aggressors are trying to continue the strategic offensive against Ukraine and have not given up trying to reach the administrative borders of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, but without success.

Source: Summary of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of 12.00 on March 17

Literally: "The twenty-second day of the heroic opposition of the Ukrainian people to the Russian military invasion continues.

Russian terrorist forces continue their strategic offensive operation against Ukraine.

The occupying forces are still trying to reach the administrative borders of Luhansk and Donetsk regions. With no success. "

Details: The General Staff notes that in order to restrain the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russians are trying to blockade settlements to the north of the capital.

At the same time, they are not baulking at launching missile and bomb strikes on civilian infrastructure in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipropetrovsk and other regions where there are no active hostilities.

Intensive use of the territory and infrastructure of the Republic of Belarus by a group of Russian troops has been observed in the Volyn direction with the aim of striking at the territory of Ukraine and providing logistical support to a group of aggressors operating in the Polissya direction.

According to the General Staff, it is still possible that certain units of the Armed Forces of Belarus will participate in hostilities on Russia’s side.

In the Polissya direction, the occupiers made attempts to recapture previously occupied frontiers which they had lost as a result of the successful actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They were unsuccessful in this direction, and suffered losses. They are trying to regroup troops and establish logistics.

The Russian forces did not conduct active offensive operations in the Seversky direction, and continued preparations for the resumption of an offensive aimed at further blockading Kyiv from the northeast. The occupiers are carrying out chaotic shelling of positions of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and trying to conduct reconnaissance.

In the Slobozhansky direction, the aggressors tried to carry out offensive operations from the area of ​​the city of Izyum, but were unsuccessful. They are trying to gain a foothold in the occupied frontiers and improve the logistics system.

The Russian invaders are strengthening the group using additional units of the 1st Tank Army and coastal units of the Baltic Fleet.

The occupiers carried out offensive operations in the Donetsk and Tavriia directions. They

had partial success in the Rubizhne area (they are dug in on the western and north-western outskirts of the city, moving to the southern part of the city). They carried out unsuccessful assault operations in the Popasna and Volnovakha directions in the areas of Verkhnotoretsk and Marinka settlements where they suffered losses. They are carrying out regrouping of troops and replenishment of supplies. Advances on the city continue from the direction of Mariupol.

The occupiers did not carry out active offensive operations in the Zaporizhzhia direction.

In the South Bug direction, Russian forces conducted reconnaissance and moved engineering equipment out to the holding positions. They tried to carry out offensive operations in the Kryvyi Rih direction and did take control of Mala Shestirnia settlement. But they had no general success, and dug in at their holding positions.

In the Tavriia direction, Russian forces continued to increase the logistics and supply systems to the group of troops. A collection point for damaged equipment has been set up at Dzhankoi airfield.

It is also reported that the Russians are trying to spread disinformation through all available channels of communication, both to the population of the temporarily occupied territories and to its own population.

The Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine appeals to the media community to limit the coverage of personal data and photos containing the faces of officers (unit commanders), geolocation, visual, targeted reference to the places where they perform tasks.

Eliminate photo and video recording, and the spread of accurate locations of bomb shelters (shelters for civilians) in the media, in order to make it more difficult for the enemy to obtain current information from open sources for planning rocket and bomb attacks on civilian infrastructure.