Russia keeps Ukrainian forces near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast on defensive – Estonian intelligence

Colonel Ants Kiviselg, Head of the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) Intelligence Center, has reported that over the past week Russia has the Ukrainian positions in Donetsk Oblast on the defensive despite having transferred a part of its troops to Kursk Oblast.

According to ERR, Kiviselg states that Russia keeps maintaining the initiative at the operational level and conducting tactical offensives with the main focus on the Donetsk front. At the same time, Russian operational pressure has gradually decreased during the week. While at the beginning of the week there were 185 attacks per day, today it has dropped to around 110 attacks per day.

Kiviselg added that almost a third of Russia's attacks currently take place on the Pokrovsk front.

Despite a partial transfer of Russian forces to Russia’s Kursk Oblast and the start of the Russian counter-offensive operation there, offensive actions of Russian forces on the Donetsk front have not decreased, Kiviselg added.

"According to the latest information, a group of Russian Federation troops has been put together, formed mainly from more combat capable units, i.e. assault troops and naval units. Additional units have also been brought from the Russian-Ukrainian front in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts to the Kursk direction," Kiviselg revealed.

He admitted that Russian troops had not achieved significant success in Kursk Oblast, and Ukrainian forces destroyed 11 combat Russian tanks.

Kiviselg noted that Russia became more active on the Kurakhove front, starting its offensive actions using armoured equipment. At the same time, Ukrainian forces managed to destroy or damage aout 50% of Russian military equipment.

"The Russian Federation has been more active in that direction, but there has been no significant progress," he summed up.

Last week Estonian Intelligence also reported that the Russians had not managed to achieve significant progress in the battlefield in Ukraine.

At the same time, UK Intelligence admitted that over the past few weeks the Russian army had managed to achieve tactical progress near the Ukrainian settlement of Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast and said that this front would most likely remain a hotspot.