MELITOPOL, December 2. /TASS/. The build-up of the Ukrainian Armed Forces grouping on the line of contact in the Zaporozhye region has been slowed due to a strike by allied forces on railway infrastructure near the city of Krivoy Rog, Vladimir Rogov, who heads the We Stand With Russia movement, told TASS on Friday.

"The Ukrainians have been ramping up forces near Zaporozhye and increasing combat coordination with those who have arrived here from near Kherson. A strike on the railroad infrastructure complicated the deployment of troops, but they have not given up the idea," he said.

According to Rogov, Ukrainian forces are now limited in their ability to redeploy the 17th Tank Brigade and other Ukrainian units from Kherson to Zaporozhye following Sunday’s rocket attack on railway facilities near Krivoy Rog.

More than 100 Ukrainian service members were killed and 13 units of military hardware were destroyed in a precision strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces against the Ukrainian army’s 17th armored brigade near the Moiseyevka station in the Dnepropetrovsk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

Earlier, Rogov told TASS he expected that up to 40,000 Ukrainian troops would be redeployed from the Kherson Region to the Zaporozhye Region, which would subsequently increase tensions along the line of contact. According to his estimates, Kiev will prioritize occupying the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and the city of Energodar, as well as advancing toward Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov in a bid to cut off ground routes to Crimea.