Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered Russian forces to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk region by Sept. 15. Russia will be attempting to shift its third Army Corps to handle the Donetsk shift, the Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate, Oleksiy Gromov, said Thursday, according to Interfax.
“We are considering the issue that directly with the participation of this unit there will be an attempt to conduct offensive operations in Donetsk direction,” Gromov said. “The enemy continues to hold the occupied areas of Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, and is also trying to create favorable conditions for the resumption of the offensive.”
But the new army corps that Russia wants to send to Donetsk to overpower Ukrainian forces isn’t necessarily the most impressive force. In recent days Russia has tried to gin up the new group of fighters by nixing an age limit for recruits and even recruiting prisoners, so that they can beef up their numbers, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
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