According to the intelligence update published by the UK Ministry of Defense, Russian ground forces are transitioning to a “long-term, defensive posture” in most frontline areas as the Russian units in the area are “severely undermanned.”
- Russia has “likely augmented some of its units west of the Dnipro River with mobilised reservists. However, this is from an extremely low level of manning.” According to the update, in September, Russian officers described companies in the Kherson sector as consisting of between six and eight men each, while the companies should have around 100 personnel.
- In the last six weeks “there has been a clear move from Russian ground forces to transition to a long-term, defensive posture on most areas of the front line in Ukraine. This is likely due to a more realistic assessment that the severely undermanned, poorly trained force in Ukraine is currently only capable of defensive operations.”
“Even if Russia succeeds in consolidating long-term defensive lines in Ukraine, its operational design will remain vulnerable. To regain the initiative, it will need to regenerate higher quality, mobile forces which are capable of dynamically countering Ukrainian breakthroughs and conducting their own large-scale offensive operations,” the update reads.
