Kiev’s forces are retreating and being forced to “plug holes” in their front line, Valery Gerasimov has said

Russian forces will push their advantage and continue their offensive against Ukrainian troops, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov has said.

Russia’s Joint Group of Forces is pushing its “non-stop offensive” on almost all sections of the front line, he said at a Russian Defense Ministry briefing on Saturday.

“An analysis of the state of Ukrainian troops shows that in the spring and summer, the enemy concentrated all its efforts on slowing down our offensive, while suffering heavy losses,” he said.

“As a result, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are forced to transfer the most combat-ready units from one crisis direction to another to ‘plug holes’. Today, the strategic initiative is entirely with the Russian troops,” he added.

The offensive is accompanied by regular “massive” strikes on Ukrainian arms manufacturing facilities, Gerasimov added. “During the spring-summer period, such strikes were carried out against 76 important facilities,” he said.

Targeted massive fire strikes continue exclusively against military facilities and military-industrial complex facilities in Ukraine.

Gerasimov also stressed that the advances on the battlefield would not have been possible without “the timely supply” of “high-precision weapons, missiles, ammunition, weapons and military equipment,” by Russian industry.