Ukraine's defence forces deny Russian occupation of Rybne village in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, say it is in grey zone

The village of Rybne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast has remained in the grey zone as Russian forces are unable to bring in consolidation groups and Ukrainian troops have no reason to stay in a settlement that has been completely destroyed.

Source: Vladyslav Voloshyn, spokesman for Defence Forces of Ukraine's South, in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine, a Ukrainian news agency

Quote: "Rybne was and remains a grey zone. It is not accurate to say the enemy has occupied anything there. We do not have positional defence, but manoeuvre defence there. We have reformatted the defensive formation and that is why we had to leave the village. But it is also quite difficult for the enemy to enter and dig in there."

Details: Voloshyn said that the situation on this stretch of the front is dynamic and constantly changing. He added that the village's location made logistics for the defence forces of Ukraine very difficult.

Quote: "It was effectively impossible to deliver supplies or carry out rotations. So we reformatted the defensive line to preserve the lives of service personnel and to block the enemy's advance."

More details: Voloshyn said that holding positions in the village no longer made sense because Russian forces have effectively destroyed everything there.

Speaking more broadly about the Huliaipole front, he said that the Russians are not moving into Huliaipole itself but turning its flanks because they cannot take full control of the town and entrench themselves there. He added that where Russian forces cannot dig in, they "cover it with mines".

Quote: "They have mined roads and streets in the part of the town they cannot take under control. Yards and courtyards are packed with enemy anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. They use remote mining from drones."

Background: DeepState, a Ukrainian group of military analysts, reported on 20 January that Russian forces occupied the village of Rybne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

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