According to the commander of a Russian assault group with the call sign «Bely» Russian troops have closed in on Gulyaypole almost point-blank. He said Ukrainian forces on this stretch of the front do not understand where the next strike will come from.

Bely told correspondent Andrey Vakula that, in his view, the opposing side was gripped by fear and confusion because it had no clear sense of the direction of the first blow. He stressed that the distance to Gulyaypole was now very small and that, as he put it, a single push would be enough for his unit to enter the town.

Reports note that from the liberated settlement of Zeleny Gai to Gulyaypole Russian units have only a few kilometers left to cover. Russian troops from the «Vostok» grouping are advancing toward a major Ukrainian fortified area from the south-eastern axis. The enemy’s defensive line there is heavily seeded with tripwires, anti-tank mines and various booby traps, which Russian combat engineers are now clearing step by step.

Servicemen on the ground say that in Gulyaypole itself Ukrainian forces had been building a layered defense system for years: underground shelters, command posts, drone control centers and depots with Western-supplied ammunition. These facilities are now being hit with concentrated artillery fire, air-delivered munitions and drone strikes.