British Intelligence: Russia urgently sends reinforcements to Ukraine

(Dan Tri) – Russia is said to have deployed reserve troops to the Ukrainian battlefield, earlier than expected, in the context of Ukraine’s counterattack starting to record progress, British military intelligence said.

Ukraine’s counterattack is said to be stretching Russia’s forces.

In a report updating intelligence information related to the war between Russia and Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense said on September 13 that Russia `most likely` deployed units of the 25th Combined Arms Corps (

`Units of the 25CAA are most likely deployed to Ukraine for the first time. This force appears to be focused on the Lugansk region in northeastern Ukraine,` the British Ministry of Defense said.

Russia has not yet commented.

`It seems that this hasty deployment of reinforcements earlier than expected is partly due to Russia continuing to stretch its forces along the front line in the context of Ukraine continuing its 3-axis counterattack,` the report said.

According to the British Ministry of Defense, it is likely that `Russia will use 25CAA units to recreate a battlefield ready reserve force to provide commanders with greater operational flexibility`.

Earlier this month, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that 25CAA units could be partially deployed to Lugansk to transfer part of Russia’s elite forces here to support the surface.

ISW assessed that soldiers of 25CAA may encounter obstacles during combat due to not being fully trained in the context of hasty deployment, much earlier than planned.

`However, the Russian command may consider deploying a less effective formation to Lugansk as an acceptable risk given the relatively low tempo of operations along much of the Lugansk front line.`

Observers say that Russia’s hasty deployment of reinforcements could be a sign that Ukraine’s counterattack is making progress despite opposing opinions.

Ukraine began its counterattack campaign in June. Ukrainian and Western officials both admitted that the counterattack speed was slower than expected, but still achieved important steps to weaken the defense system and resources.

Kiev said it had regained more than 10 villages and continued to advance in the south in recent days.

Meanwhile, Russia repeatedly declared that Ukraine’s counterattack campaign had failed and suffered heavy losses.

`Their counterattack campaign is not bringing results, even the Ukrainian army is suffering heavy losses. Once they run out of resources, they may want to start negotiations,` the Kremlin owner said.

On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that the more Ukraine delays, the more difficult future peace negotiations will be.