“Russia’s cognitive warfare effort aims to push Ukraine and the West to cede this heavily defended territory to Russia without a fight, allowing Russia to avoid spending significant amounts of time and resources to try to seize it on the battlefield,” the think tank added.
Syrskyi said that in some areas, Russian forces are only moving forward less than 5 kilometers per month.
“At such pace, the advance of the Russians with daily losses of more than 1,000 people is a negligible result,” the general added.
However, Syrskyi admitted that the situation is harsh for Ukrainian troops defending Pokrovsk, where Russia has poured 156,000 men into the fight. “It is currently the main theater of military operations,” Syrskyi said.
He admitted that this fall Ukrainian troops had fully withdrawn from Pokrovsk, but said on Nov. 15 they launched a counteroffensive and retook almost half the city.
“We continue to hold the northern part of the city, approximately along the railway line. In addition, west of Pokrovsk, we have cleared and controlled about 54 square kilometers,” Syrskyi said.
“The situation is difficult, especially during fog and rain. The enemy takes advantage of the weather conditions to enter the city, avoiding damage from our UAVs. However, in the future, we are only increasing the number of our group within Pokrovsk,” the commander added.