The creation of a new hundred-thousand-strong military group for the war in Ukraine is a major scam by Russia. In reality, Russians will be supplementing existing mobilized units, presenting them as new, states Oleksandr Musiienko, the Head of the Center of Military Law Researches.
Russia is forming a new military grouping
Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Pavliyuk, revealed that Russia is creating a new military grouping of over 100,000 soldiers. However, according to him, the occupiers' plans for this grouping are not fully understood at the moment.
"This doesn't need to be an offensive; perhaps they will be replenishing their units that have lost combat readiness," Pavliuk explained.
However, he did not rule out that by the beginning of summer, the Russians could use these forces for corresponding offensive operations on one of the fronts.
Expert opinion
According to Musiienko, the Russians are forming a new military grouping to replenish losses suffered during the offensive campaign from last October until now.
"These losses are significant.Therefore, to continue combat operations at least at the current level, they need to replenish, or else their offensive activity will decline. So, these actions by Russia should be seen as emergency measures to extend the offensive campaign into the summer," he explains.
Moreover, the expert doesn't exclude that the Russian command could indeed create a grouping in a very short time, relying solely on human resources rather than on weapons. However, as Musiienko has noted, in any case, this would not be a genuinely new grouping of Russian troops.
"How will this grouping be formed? Let me explain. They will rotate some of their units. These units will be supplemented by mobilized soldiers. And then they will rename them as if they have created something new. So, it's actually a big scam. This is part of the PSYOP," he tells RBC-Ukraine.
Regardless, as Musiienko adds, given the current circumstances and the losses suffered, the Russians simply cannot do without replenishing their army.
"Of course, this is part of the PSYOP, but it's not just empty statements or facts. The important thing is that these won't be entirely new troop groupings. These will be groupings consisting of 30-40% of those who are already fighting. And they will present this as the creation of new groups," the expert explains.
Is there a threat of an advance from the north?
Currently, there are rumors circulating in the information field about the threat of a new Russian advance from the north. However, during today's interview, Pavliuk assured that there is no such threat at the moment.
"Despite the fact that the enemy is not creating any offensive groupings in this direction, attacks are carried out on civilian population centers to intimidate people," Pavliuk explained the tactics of Russia.
Musiienko agrees with this assessment. In a conversation with RBC-Ukraine, he emphasizes that the formation of a new Russian military grouping is also not related to an increase in shelling in the Sumy region.
"This is not related to the situation in the north. As of today, there is no increase in the Russian troops' presence in this area. There are shelling attacks, but there is no increase in troops that would indicate Russia's plans to launch an offensive from there. The situation is dynamic, of course. This does not mean that the situation cannot change by summer. But at this moment, it is not seen," he adds.
Frontline situation today, March 22
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, during the past day, the enemy carried out 36 missile and 55 aerial strikes and conducted 150 shelling attacks from multiple launch rocket systems on the positions of our troops and civilian settlements.
Approximately 120 settlements in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions were under artillery fire.
