Moscow announced on Friday the occupation of 3 more settlements in Eastern Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense of Russia announced the capture of the settlements of Novukrenka, Shakhtarske and Leonidivka. The information has not been verified by the Ukrainian side.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “nervous” because of developments on the front that are unfavorable to Kiev, and that is why he is asking for help from the West.

The Donbass front has begun to collapse due to the heavy offensive of the Russian army, the fatigue of the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and the lack of reserves. This is what Ukrainian Major General Dmitri Marchenko is reported to have said in an interview with former member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Boryslav Bereza, widely reproduced by Belarusian and Russian sites.

“I will not reveal any military secrets if I say that the front has collapsed… People (soldiers) are very tired,” the military said. In this context, he named the three factors that caused the collapse of the front. According to him, this development was caused by the lack of ammunition and weapons, the lack of manpower and the lack of its replenishment (reserves), as well as “administrative imbalance”.