Ukrainian troops are facing “difficult” defensive operations on parts of the eastern front as severe winter cold sets in, but forces in the south continue to carry out offensive operations, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.

This fall, Russian troops began offensive operations in various areas of the front line in eastern Ukraine, trying to advance to the destroyed Avdiivka and in the northeast, between the cities of Lyman and Kupyansk.

“Difficult weather, difficult defense on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Donetsk and Avdiiv fronts. Offensive actions in the south,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in Telegram on Wednesday, Reuters and News.ro reported.

Snow and freezing temperatures – minus 5 degrees Celsius were recorded during the day on Wednesday and are forecast to fall further – could further complicate operations on the front, where fighting is already reaching its exhaustion phase.

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, controls almost a fifth of Ukraine’s territory. This summer, Kyiv launched a counteroffensive to recapture the occupied territories, but was unable to make a serious breakthrough.

Since mid-October, Avdiyivka, where the front line has changed little since the first war that broke out in 2014 between Kyiv and Russian-backed militants, has faced waves of attacks followed by temporary lulls, according to the Ukrainian military. After such a lull the day before, the head of VC “Tavria” announced on Wednesday that the Russian troops “sharply increased” the number of attacks and airstrikes.

“Our defenders are firmly holding the defense in the direction of Avdiyivka,” commander Oleksandr Tarnavsky assured in Telegram. Ukrainian troops continued their offensive on the southeastern front in the direction of Melitopol, he added.

In this morning’s assessment of the situation on the battlefield, the General Staff noted that the troops are also holding their bridgeheads on the eastern side of the Dnieper, a bank that has been occupied by Russian troops since the first days of their invasion.

The Reuters agency notes that it could not independently verify the information from the frontline.

Tarnavsky, aimed at dismissal from office?

These events are taking place amid reports that Tavria commander Oleksandr Tarnavskyi is slated to be fired after Zelenskyi replaced the defense minister and several other military commanders in recent months. cooling of relations with the Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Zaluzhny.

Tarnavskyi is the head of the Tavria military command, which led Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive in the southeast in the summer but ultimately failed to make a significant breakthrough in heavily defended Russian lines.

Ukraine’s new Defense Minister Rustem Umarov, elected in early September, said on Tuesday that no decision had yet been made to remove two of Kyiv’s top military commanders after media reports said they could be fired. Rustem Umerov’s comment at the press conference became the strongest evidence so far that Kyiv is considering the possibility of releasing the commander of the United Forces Serhii Nayev and the head of the Tavria military command Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, Reuters notes. .

“I must say that the decision has not been made yet, but we are doing everything possible to improve efficiency. If this happens, we will communicate very openly,” Umerov told reporters when asked to comment on the information that these commanders may be replaced.

Any such measure, he said, could also be related to the issues raised before his appointment in September, when he replaced Oleksiy Reznikov as minister.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi, visiting the front, talks with the head of VC “Tavria” Oleksandr Tarnavskyi (Photo: President of Ukraine via Bestimage / Bestimage / Profimedia)

The Ministry of Defense previously denied information about possible quick reshuffles.

Umerov’s comments came amid cooling relations between Zelenskyi and Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny, who this month compared the state of war with Russia to the stalemate of World War I, which the president later rejected.

Umerov said this on Tuesday during a press conference in Kyiv with his German colleague. During the event, he told reporters that he is focusing on the army’s adoption of NATO standards and meeting the needs of the army in line with its role. “These standards are very important … Every unit and every commander knows these needs, and we have to meet them,” he said.

Changes in the Ukrainian military hierarchy

Rustem Umerov, a representative of the Crimean Tatar minority, became the Minister of Defense in early September, replacing Oleksiy Reznikov. The change came after the Ministry of Defense became the target of allegations of corruption in the media during Reznikov’s tenure, although the minister himself did not face any allegations of corruption.

Later, after the appointment of a new defense minister, the Ukrainian government fired six deputy defense ministers. Among the recalled deputies was Hanna Malyar, who spoke publicly and daily about the situation at the front.

Then, in early October, Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced the commander of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine, which played an important role in defending the country after the Russian invasion last February. Major General Anatoliy Bargilevich replaced General Igor Tansyura, who held this position since May 2022, as the new commander.

A month later, at the beginning of November, Zelensky announced that he had replaced the commander of the Special Operations Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Viktor Gorenko, with Serhii Lupanchuk, and said that he was “waiting” for new results from the new leadership.

On Sunday, Zelenskyi informed his compatriots that he had replaced the head of the Medical Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Major General Anatoly Kazmirchuk was appointed instead of Tetyana Ostashchenko, Major General of the Medical Service.

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