Russia is increasing the number of personnel in eastern Ukraine as it concentrates its efforts on conducting offensive actions in the region, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said on February 27 as Ukrainian and Russian forces remained locked in fierce combat in the east and northeast.
"According to available information, up to 200 conscripts from Rostov region have been transferred to the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region," the General Staff said in its evening report.
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The General Staff added that Russian air strikes during the day included 12 carried out by Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones and more than 55 attacks from rocket salvo systems.
"The threat of missile strikes remains high throughout the territory of Ukraine," the command said.
Earlier on February 27, two rescue workers were killed by Russian attacks in western Ukraine, local authorities said after the whole of Ukraine was under an air-raid alert for about an hour as Russian forces used the Iranian-made drones in the attack.
In the western city of Khmelnytskiy, a Russian drone attack killed a member of the rescue services, while a second one died later on February 27 after being wounded in the overnight shelling of the city, said Serhiy Hamaliy, head of the regional military administration.
The General Staff said earlier on February 27 its forces had shot down 11 of 14 drones overnight.
In Kyiv, the head of the capital's military administration, Serhiy Popko, said nine drones were destroyed and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damages.
Russian troops conducted 81 offensive operations against Ukrainian defenders in Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Shakhtarsk in the Donetsk region, and in Kupyansk, in Kharkhiv region, over the past 24 hours, the General Staff reported in its daily bulletin.
Russian forces have been relentlessly attacking Bakhmut since summer, but Moscow's redoubled its efforts to take the city at the start of this year, when they launched a fresh offensive.
Analysts say that capturing the city, which has been almost completely destroyed in the fighting, would bear little strategic significance for Russia but Moscow would attach a symbolic significance to seizing it to boost the troops' morale.
The General Staff on February 27 also reported "mass desertion" among the Russian conscripts sent out to the front line.
"Russian deputy commanders tasked with political work are actively attempting to prevent desertion among Russian servicemen," the General Staff said.
The information about mass desertion among Russian troops could not be independently confirmed.