MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops are experiencing an acute shortage of personnel, equipment and ammunition near Pokrovsk on the Kiev-controlled territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), a serviceman of Ukraine’s 31st mechanized brigade fighting in that frontline area said on Monday.
"The situation is very difficult and there is a serious shortage of personnel. There are few of us left: those who can get into positions. I have three men in my company and other units also have 3-4 soldiers each," the Focus media outlet quoted the Ukrainian serviceman as saying.
Ukrainian army units "generally have no equipment at all and very few shells," he said. Ukrainian troops are suffering heavy casualties, he added.
Russian forces deny the Ukrainian army an opportunity to take new positions and entrench, he said.
"Things would have been different, if we had support and equipment but we have nothing, except for submachineguns and artillery while reconnaissance is weak," the Ukrainian serviceman said.
The Ukrainian military command is using wrong defense tactics, he said.
"The military command makes wrong decisions, we wrongly assume positions and we are placed in positions for slaughter… There are no personnel, soldiers abandon positions and flee," the Ukrainian serviceman said.
Ukraine has admitted on many occasions that a tense situation has emerged for Ukrainian troops in the Pokrovsk frontline area. Ukraine’s General Staff said on July 29 that the Pokrovsk direction was the hottest spot for Ukrainian troops. Colonel (Retired) Oleg Starikov of Ukraine’s Security Council said earlier that Ukrainian troops could not contain a tactical crisis that had emerged in the Pokrovsk direction. He admitted that Russian forces fully possessed the strategic advantage. He further said that the Ukrainian authorities were making "a lot of strategic mistakes."
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on July 28 that Russian troops had liberated the settlements of Progress and Yevgenovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. As defense circles explained to TASS, Russian troops thus gained a strategic frontier near railways, maximally restricting the Ukrainian army’s logistics.