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Showdown looms in Mykolaiv as Putin scrambles to save face

President Putin is desperately redeploying thousands of Russian troops to southern Ukraine to stave off a humiliating defeat, moving troops from the Donbas to bolster a force that has been split precariously across two banks of the wide Dnipro river.

The reinforcements bring the total Russian force in the area to more than 25,000 troops, a Ukrainian reconnaissance and intelligence team told The Times, adding that nine Russian battle groups, each between 500 and 800 men, had been moved there from Donbas and Crimea.

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