Number of Russian occupiers in Ukraine exceeds 420,000 − Ukrainian Defence Intelligence

Russia has amassed over 420,000 troops in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) reports.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine news agency with reference to a statement by Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Chief of the DIU, during the annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kyiv

Quote from the DIU official: "The Russian Federation has amassed over 420,000 troops in our temporarily occupied territories and on the Crimean Peninsula. That's apart from the Russian National Guard, other bodies, special units, and the Russian security forces that support the occupying power in our territories."

Details: He emphasised that Russia has a very powerful contingent in Ukraine, which includes numerous tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery systems, multiple-launch rocket systems and missile systems.

However, Skibitskyi says, despite such a large number of occupiers, more than a year and a half after the start of the full-scale aggression, Russia has still been unable to achieve its strategic goal of the full occupation of Ukraine.

And it has started to change its goals. Currently, the occupiers are trying to capture Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in their entirety.

Skibitskyi noted that the Russian occupiers are currently conducting the most active combat operations on two fronts - Kupiansk-Lyman and Marinka-Donetsk - in order to complete at least one task and make it to the administrative borders of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.

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