OREANDA-NEWS The Russian army is not moving deep into Ukraine as quickly, as the number of fighters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is growing, while the number of Russian fighters does not change upwards, said retired colonel Yuri Knutov. He stressed that the special operation is going according to plan, and urged not to force events, Radio 1 writes.

"The special operation is going according to plan, we should not force events for one simple reason. The number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is increasing: Zelensky has already announced 700 thousand people, and by the end of the year the task is to increase the strength of the Ukrainian army to a million. At the same time, our army is not increasing numerically. And we we are conducting offensive military operations that require numerical superiority. Despite this, we are successfully moving forward, but not as fast as many would like, "Knutov emphasized.

He stressed that now the Russian army intends to drive the enemy into three boilers in the directions of Severodonetsk-Lysichansk, Kramatorsk-Slavyansk, Makeevka-Avdeevka. According to Knutov, Kramatorsk is now "not a very good situation." The retired colonel believes that local authorities are preparing for hostilities inside the city. This, according to a military expert, is evidenced by the shutdown of electricity, the Internet and communications.

Earlier, retired colonel Viktor Baranets said that entire battalions of Ukrainian soldiers are surrendering or refusing to fight, which indicates panic in the ranks of the Ukrainian military. In his opinion, the command of the Ukrainian army is at odds with the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky.