Intelligence chief: Toropets drone strike impact will be apparent in October
Successful Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian army ammunition depots should be able to start impacting front lines as early as October, Lieutenant Colonel Janek Kesselmann, second-in-command of the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) intelligence center (Luurekeskus) said Friday.
Speaking at the Ministry of Defense's weekly press conference Friday, Kesselmann highlighted a recent decline in the intensity of Russian forces' attacks.
Whereas there was an average of 226 strikes per day last week, this week the number had fallen to 155.
Lt Col. Kesselmann said: "This decline is not yet a result of last week's Ukrainian deep operations, specifically the destruction of depots," referring to the recent strike on missile warehouses in Toropets, Tver oblast.
"The outcomes of this will likely be seen in two to three weeks' time," he added.
"Since the Russian Federation has lost a significant amount of munitions intended for the front lines, they will likely need to prioritize their operations in the coming months," Kesselmann continued.
He added that, with this in mind, it remains uncertain whether Russian forces have the resources to push back those Ukrainian units that have crossed into Russia's Kursk oblast, trapping some Russian units between them and a bend in the Seim River – whose crossings the Ukrainians had demolished.
Kesselmann acknowledged that Russia has has been continuing its advance, albeit slowly, in the Pokrovske sector in Donetsk oblast this week, reaching the point where Russian forces were able to isolate the nearby settlement of Seledove.
Although the town is small by Ukrainian standards, with a pre-war population of 22,000, as with many small towns in eastern Ukraine which may have been anonymous before the war and are now known internationally, it is in a strategically important location.
"If the settlement is captured by the enemy, it is likely to disrupt the supply lines to Pokrovske and Gorokhovets," Kesselmann put it.
"Elsewhere, Russian forces remain quite active, particularly in the direction of Pokrovske. Also, the Russian Federation has begun operations in southeastern Ukraine," he concluded.
Summing up the situation, Kesselmann said that, overall, there have been no major changes in the war.
A Ukrainian mass drone strike on a military depot in Toropets recently caused massive explosions.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Mait Ots
