On September 15, the Ukrajinska pravda portal reported, citing two military sources, that General Olexandr Syrskyj had relieved two army corps commanders of their command after their units had been pushed out of part of the front line section entrusted to them.
Allegedly, these are the commander of the 17th Army Corps, Volodymyr Silenko, and the commander of the 20th Corps, Maksym Kituhin, whose dismissal reportedly took place one to two weeks ago.
The 17th Corps, stationed in the Zaporizhzhia region, has recently ceded control of the village of Kamianske and part of the Plavni municipal area, located on the banks of the Dnieper River, to Russian troops.
Kituhin's 20th Corps, stationed on the border between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, enabled the Russians to advance into the area based in the city of Dnipro.
Corps instead of brigades
These are the first changes in the leadership of the Ukrainian army since the armed forces switched from brigade-based to corps-based command of combat operations.
Part of the transition included the establishment of the 3rd Army Corps on March 14, 2025: The commander of the 3rd Independent Assault Brigade, Colonel Andriy Biletsky, announced the formation of the corps at that time, but the original brigade also falls under its command.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday that its troops had captured the village of Olhivske in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Vladimir Rogov, a senior representative of the Russian occupation administration in the region, told Russian news agency RIA that Russian forces had broken through Ukrainian defenses and captured about 30 square kilometers of territory that until recently had been controlled by Kyiv.
The key location of Pokrovsk
With the war now in its third year, Russian troops are conducting a protracted push westward, focusing on the Donetsk region, with one of Moscow's main targets being the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
The Ukrainian army quoted the commander in the region, Andriy Kryschenko, in a statement saying that Ukrainian troops had stopped the Russian advance at Pokrovsk.
“Everyone understands that tensions have subsided and the work to destroy our enemies continues calmly,” Kryschenko said.
In addition to the advance in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian forces are also exerting pressure in the northeast of the Kharkiv region, particularly around the city of Kupiansk, which has been largely destroyed.
They are also trying to hold their position in the Sumy border region, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, citing Syrsky, said that Ukrainian troops are recapturing areas along the border.
(reuters)