Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Aug. 7 that over the last week, the eastern front became the "epicenter of hostilities."
She reported that Russian forces are "desperately trying to surround Avdiivka" in Donetsk Oblast and attempting to regain the positions around Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast that they lost last autumn during the Ukrainian surprise counteroffensive.
Maliar said that that last week alone, Russia spent "almost half a million rounds of ammunition" and 9,000 shells in the east.
She previously reported on fierce battles in the region on Aug. 1.
Russia has been concentrating forces around Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast since mid-July.
On July 17, Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Eastern Military Command, said that Russia was concentrating "more than 100,000 personnel, more than 900 tanks, more than 555 artillery systems, and 370 multiple rocket launchers" in the Lyman-Kupiansk direction.
Asami Terajima
