RIGHT SPEAK: UKR Repels 39 Attacks in 6 Sectors-Past Day; RU Unable to Establish ‘buffer zone’ in Kharkiv Oblast to Protect Belgorod; RU Makes 10 ATTEMPTS to Drive UKR Forces from Left Bank Dnipro River; Poor Training, Troop Fatigue Behind RU Bombing Own Territory, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

10.01.2024 20:34

Ukrainian forces repel 39 attacks in six sectors in past day – General Staff:

The Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled 39 enemy attacks in the Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka, and Zaporizhzhia directions and another ten assaults on the left bank of the Dnipro River.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in its evening update on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

According to the General Staff, the Russian troops continue attempts to knock Ukrainian units out of the bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnipro River.

Throughout the day, the invaders conducted ten unsuccessful assaults. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their positions, inflicting significant losses on the enemy.

The General Staff reports that the operational situation in the east and south of Ukraine remains difficult. In total, 42 combat clashes took place on front lines in the past day.

The Ukrainian Air Force launched seven strikes on the Russian manpower clusters. Air defense forces intercepted an enemy Kh-59 guided missile.

For their part, missile units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit two Russian manpower, weapons and military equipment clusters and three other enemy targets: a command post, an ammunition depot and an EW station. --->READ MORE HERE

Photo:REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi

Russia unable to establish ‘buffer zone’ in Kharkiv Oblast to protect Belgorod — ISW

Moscow is unlikely to conduct a large-scale military operation in Kharkiv Oblast, despite calls from Russian military commentators to establish a “buffer zone” bordering Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its Jan. 9 report.

Russian nationalists have repeated old calls for a major offensive aimed at Kharkiv to create a “buffer zone” with Belgorod Oblast. However, the ISW assessed that the current resources of the Russian military would be insufficient for an adequate operation of this kind.

Russian forces “will take all measures” to prevent Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod,

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Jan.9. Russian military correspondents used Peskov’s comments to call on Russian forces to create a “buffer zone” up to 15 kilometers deep in Kharkiv Oblast to push Ukrainian rocket artillery away from the Russian border. ISW notes that the same sentiment was prevalent in Summer 2023 when Kyiv conducted limited cross-border raids into the region.

However, a hypothetical Russian operation 15 kilometers deep and several hundred kilometers wide would be a “massive operational undertaking that would require a grouping of forces far larger and significantly better resourced than what Russian forces currently have concentrated along the entire international border with Ukraine, least of all in Belgorod Oblast.”

Previously, the analysts assessed that Russian forces might intensify efforts to capture Kupyansk, Kharkiv Oblast, in the coming weeks, and that the Russian grouping on the Kupyansk direction appears better prepared for conducting offensives than elsewhere in Ukraine. Therefore, Russian military forces are currently likely only capable of tactical-level actions in Kharkiv Oblast near the Russian border. This could at best serve as diversionary tactic and draw Ukrainian forces away from a possible Russian operation aimed at Kupyansk, ISW writes. --->READ MORE HERE