Donetsk, Sep 10 - DAN. U.S. military attache in Ukraine Paul Schmitt will visit the headquarters of the Ukrainian army’s 128th and 36th Brigades on the Mariupol axis on September 12, Donetsk People’s Republic Operations Command spokesman Daniil Bezsonov said on Monday citing intelligence reports.
“Our intelligence received information on plans of the U.S. Embassy’s military attache Paul Schmitt to arrive in the “joint forces operation” zone on September 12,” Bezsonov said. “This supervisor of the Ukrainian army plans to visit the headquarters of the 128th and 36th Brigades on the Mariupol axis.”
Schmitt will check the readiness of the Ukrainian formations for the September 14 offensive. He will take reports from the Brigades’ commanders and NATO military instructors who earlier arrived at Ukrainian army positions,” he said adding that that the number of instructors had grown in the past few days.
“On September 11, 12 foreign officers, eight men and four women, are expected to arrive at the headquarters of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade,” the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the DPR Intelligence reported that commissions of the Ukrainian Army General Staff and the joint forces operations headquarters were solving problems with supplies of tube, missile and artillery ordnance and fuel and lubricants to 36th and 128th Brigades attack formations.
According to inspectors’ reports, 128th Brigade has a 30 percent supply of fuel while 25th Brigade has 25 percent. At the 2nd and 3rd defence lines, Ukrainian army equipment has 15 to 20 percent of fuel in fuel tanks.
Reports said in early September that Ukrainian forces were preparing a large-scale offensive against DPR positions on the southern (Mariupol) axis. The Ukraine reportedly massed up more than 12,000 troops for the attack. Latest intelligence reports showed that the Ukrainian army has been building up hardware on the contact line in violation of the Minsk peace accords.*jk