LUGANSK, December 25. /TASS/. Officer of the People's Militia of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) Andrey Marochko has said, citing intelligence data, that Ukraine deployed more troops to the Svatovo area due to heavy losses.

"A deployment of additional forces and means of Ukrainian armed formation has been detected toward the settlement of Svatovo," he told TASS.

Marochko said that move by the Ukrainian command was forced because of "mortality and sanitary losses exceeded the estimated figures, and the fire means turned out to be ineffective". He said on Friday that Russian forces were conducting flexible defense near Svatovo.

The commander of volunteer special forces unit Troya who goes by the call name Alabai told TASS earlier that Ukrainian command is seeking to cut the link between the towns of Svatovo and Starobelsk at any cost to human lives, even in elite units.