The Russian occupation forces are building defense lines in the south and trying to transform their units into stronger ones, Head of the Joint Press Center of the Defense Forces of the Pivden (South) Operational Command Natalia Humeniuk has said.

"The most difficult situation is in the east of the country. I the south, the enemy is building defense lines as it understands that it will need several of them. They have seen our tactics in Kharkiv direction at the time, and in Kherson region during the liberation of the right bank. They realize that Dnipro is our river and it cannot stop us, unless it can slightly hold us back for a while," she said on air of the national telethon on Wednesday.

Humeniuk also said that there are certain difficulties, including the ones caused by weather, however, the Ukrainian forces know how they can benefit from them.

The occupation forces are trying to transform their units, she said.

"As for the personnel they have in the southern direction, they are trying to form stronger units and send them, respectively, to their strategic directions that are especially hot for them. They have enough [of personnel] to distribute forces and leave part of it in the south. Yes, they are trying to use mobilized [personnel], who have passed some stages of training over some period of time of around a month. They have realized that it is a very risky step to send unprepared personnel and they are trying to use this time of stabilization due to weather conditions as a period for some kind of training," Humeniuk said.