According to Palisa, these tasks have already been “rescheduled a million times.”
“I personally don’t see the possibility of the Rashka completing this task on time,” he emphasized.
As Palisa said, the occupiers want to create buffer zones in the Kharkov, Sumy and Dnepropetrovsk regions.
“Later on, Odessa and Nikolaev were considered at the strategic level. But objectively, assessing their own capabilities, the top Russian generals are not yet looking in that direction,” noted the deputy head of the OP.
According to Palisa, Donbass is a priority task for the aggressor country. The Russian Federation is also trying to create conditions for operational success in the Zaporozhye direction.
The deputy head of the OP hopes that in 2026 the front will change for the better for Ukraine.
Context
The most intense battles at the front in the war of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation against Ukraine have been taking place in the Donetsk region in recent months. In particular, the occupiers are trying to capture Pokrovsk and Mirnograd.
On December 22, 2025, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that there were about 1,100 Russian occupiers in Pokrovsk, and the Ukrainian military was “about the same level.”
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky considers the defense of the Pokrovsko-Mirnograd agglomeration effective.
Currently, the occupiers are bogged down in urban battles in Pokrovsk and Mirnograd, said the commander of the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Armed Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Yevgeny Lasiychuk, in an interview published on January 23, 2026. In his opinion, “by spring the enemy will be exhausted” and will slightly slow down the pace of his offensive.
