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Ukraine pulls lots of elite troops to Kharkov Region, Russian official says

"From the first day of the liberation of the northern Kharkov Region in May, Kraken units were deployed there," Vitaly Ganchev said

MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. While Ukrainian military reserves in Volchansk in the Kharkov Region are mostly made of untrained mobilized soldiers who try to surrender, Kiev has also pulled lots of elite troops from the Kraken nationalist battalion and the Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate [GUR] to that section of the line of engagement, a senior regional official told a news conference.

"As regards the categories of Ukrainian troops who have been deployed [to the Kharkov Region], those are mostly mobilized recruits without any special training. You can tell by how fast they try to surrender," said Vitaly Ganchev, the head of the region’s military-civilian administration.

Also, he said, there are quite enough elite troops among the reserves. "From the first day of the liberation of the northern Kharkov Region in May, Kraken units were deployed there and units from [Ukraine’s defense intelligence chief Kirill] Budanov, too, as well as units from a presidential brigade that ensured his security in Kiev," Ganchev said, taking a TASS reporter’s question about the situation in Volchansk.