Front line grows as Russia shifts tactics, Ukraine general says

The front line on the battlefield in Ukraine has grown in length to nearly 800 miles, stretching Kyiv's defenses, while Russian forces employ a new tactic of sending swarms of small assault groups to infiltrate Ukrainian lines, Ukraine's top military commander said.

- BY HANNA ARHIROVA AND BARRY HATTON

The line of contact has grown by roughly 120 miles over the last year, and Ukrainian forces are averaging between 160 and 190 combat engagements every day with Russia's bigger army, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a review of the battlefield situation.

At the same time, Russian tactics have switched since the start of the summer from costly large-scale offensives to deploying small assault groups in a new approach that Syrskyi called the "thousand cuts" tactic.

His version of events could not be independently verified, and Russian officials made no immediate comment.