MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky has disbanded the Dnepr operational and strategic group, responsible for a significant part of the front from Zaporozhye to the Kharkov region, one of their main tasks being to distribute ammunition among brigades, the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper reported.
The group (formerly Khortytsa) was liquidated at the end of September. It was commanded by Major General Mikhail Drapaty for eight months, the newspaper said. Dnepr’s functions will be transferred to newly created corps-level formations.
Drapaty will remain commander of the Joint Forces and will move with his team to one of the northeastern directions of the front, where he will lead a group of troops, while his area of influence and responsibility will decrease by about half.
A colonel told Ukrayinskaya Pravda that by doing this, Syrsky seeks to "remove a competitor. On the one hand, this is a logical step, because the layer of the operational and strategic groups is removed. It should disappear with the transition to corps (the transition to the corps structure, which began in February, where it was decided to change the brigade structure - TASS). On the other hand, this step doesn't do anything, because Syrsky is in charge anyway. What kind of reforms? No corps commands its own set of troops yet, no one has the right to maneuver. They eliminated the tactical groups, and created them again in the Serebryansky Forest."