Khomchak briefs on the Army's preparedness in Donbas / Photo from UNIAN

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing for all possible scenarios of developments in Donbas, the country's east.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel-General Ruslan Khomchak announced this at a joint press conference with Defense Minister Andriy Taran, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

"I want to assure you that as part of a new J structure [amid the transition to NATO standards], the General Staff is now working out all the plans, all scenarios for responding to the situation that could unfold," he said.

"All plans are evaluated, all plans are prepared, all plans are reported in due course to the country's leaders, the Ministry of Defense. As [part of preparations for] an offensive scenario, we last year began preparations at all our military units for offensive operations in urbanized areas, since we must be ready for this [option] too. Troops are being trained for all possible scenarios," he added.

He also updated on the situation along the contact line between Ukrainian positions and those of the Russian occupying forces in Donbas.

"There is no such notion as a 'gray zone' in military terminology, there is an interposition zone. It is the area between the enemy's positions and ours. It is no secret today, everyone knows that an interposition zone is between 70 meters to one kilometer along the 409-kilometer-long contact line. Therefore, speaking of threats that someone will occupy the interposition zone, [I can say] that not a single active operation is carried out without a purpose. What is the purpose of the fact that the enemy will reduce the interposition area from 1,000 to 700 meters? To be more vulnerable before our troops? There should a specific goal to launch any operation, and this goal is definitely not 200 meters within the interposition zone," he said.

General Staff's J structures

The following J structures of a Joint Staff are applicable to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: J1 on personnel issues, J2 on intelligence, J3 on operations activity, J4 on logistics, J5 on defense planning, J6 on communications and information systems, J7 troop training, J8 on resources and finances.

The military command and control agencies of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are being routinely transferred to the J structure to achieve better compatibility with the Armed Forces of NATO countries. That is, if a country participates in NATO operations, then its military units, which are allocated for participation in that operation, must have just such a J structure that allows them to effectively interact during operations and warfare.

The structure of the J9 of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is civil-military cooperation (CIMIC).

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