The head of the information and consulting company Defence Express, Serhiy Zh*urets, noted that the enemy’s activity on the front coincided with the Munich Security Conference, which took place from February 14-16.
He stated this on the air on "Espreso".
"There are both positive and negative moments on the front. The command of Operational and Strategic Group "Khortytsia" confirmed that in the Pokrovsk direction, the enemy was driven out of Pishchane. Our control over Pishchane complicates the enemy’s logistics on the western flank, where it is trying to expand its positions to encircle Pokrovsk, but this is not succeeding now. However, the weekend of February 15th and 16th was very tense, especially Saturday – there were 261 combat clashes, while last week we talked about typically 90. All along the front line, starting from Velyka Novosilka, as well as in the Kurakhiv, Toretsk, and Pokrovsk directions, the enemy acted aggressively and launched active attacks using armored vehicles," Serhiy Zhurets noted.
According to him, such enemy activity on the front coincided with the Munich Security Conference, negotiations, and meetings that took place there, and the enemy attempted to conduct massive assaults.
"Of what the enemy managed to achieve – in the Kurakhiv direction, there was a certain breakthrough by the occupants from Zelenivka to Ulakli, which creates a threat to our group holding the defence from Dachne to Kostyantynivka. Reports came in of our counteracting efforts in the area of Kostyantynivka and Ulakli to prevent approaches and cut off the road from Dachne to Zaporizhzhya. Of course, fighting continues there, and the enemy continues attempts to storm, seeking to equalize the Kurakhove pocket, measuring 4 km by 10 km, to push back or encircle our forces and deploy their troops to Toretsk," commented the military expert.
In his opinion, the further plans of the enemy – to carry out offensive actions towards Kostyantynivka from Toretsk and Chasiv Yar. However, Ukrainian defenders, holding the Kurakhiv bridgehead, restrain the enemy’s actions.
"The second difficult area – Velyka Novosilka, where the occupier advanced to the settlement of Novyi Komar. Now the enemy is attempting to attack around Velyka Novosilka. On one hand, there were successes and mistakes here. Regarding the Kursk region, near the settlement of Mykilske, the enemy conducted assault actions on tanks that were destroyed by our 47th Mechanized Brigade "Mahura". The activity of Russian troops in the Kursk region has been halted," Zhurets concluded.