Today at 14:26
Why is Russia slowing down the pace of the offensive and transferring all its forces to the Donetsk region? What weapons does Ukraine lack to move from defense to an active offensive and liberation of territories? Security expert Ivan Varchenko spoke about this on the air of the FREEDOM marathon on the UA TV channel.
The expert explained why it is becoming increasingly difficult for Russian ideologists to explain to the population the reasons for the protracted war in Ukraine:
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for the ideologists of Russian aggression to find words and expressions to explain to their population what exactly is happening in Ukraine.
We understand that they were preparing the entire 140 million population of Russia for this, that there will be no 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence. Like, 30 years is enough, and then we return to the Russian Empire, to one of its iterations. Putin’s Russia, as they assumed, with Kyiv as the center of one of the regions of this empire. They did not succeed in doing this either in the first days, in months, or six months.
Moreover, there are no clear signals to the Russian population that this will be done in the foreseeable future. They try to come up with something. Now they were talking about the great humanistic mission of the Russian people, you see, they do not want to kill civilians. This is after they have killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens after the number of child victims is only close to four hundred. We are not talking about the hundreds of children who died in Mariupol, in Izyum, and many other cities of Ukraine. It will be possible to count all the victims only after the end of the war.
The Russians continue the war, in which they compensate for their losses and their inability to conduct military operations by killing the local population. They try to talk about how they love Ukraine and what kind of humanists they are.”
Varchenko is convinced that Russia will not announce a general mobilization:
Russia cannot go for mobilization, because this will have many negative factors for Putin. For instance, it can catalyze internal protests, revolutions, and riots. Moreover, mobilization will affect every family.
Therefore, they do not go for general mobilization. However, Russians try to bring more suicide bombers into their army with all sorts of hidden forms of this mobilization. These suicide bombers will not be able to move on to successful attacking actions, because the psychology of this army has not changed.
Both technically and emotionally, Russians cannot count on any successful actions now. They will go on the defensive. But we will also have an active defense.”
He spoke about current situation in Ukrainian army:
“Ukraine is on the defensive position. Nevertheless, Ukraine is ready to attack. We will do it as soon as the opportunity presents itself, including deep behind enemy lines.
We see our strikes in Crimea. We see that Russian troops are being defeated – warehouses, logistics centers, and control centers are being destroyed. Russian troops must think about how they move further and further away from the front line.”
Varchenko told what Ukraine expects from Western partners in the field of weapons:
“Precision weapons are what we expect from our partners in the West. Then Ukraine will have a chance to go on the attack and liberate the territories.
We are looking forward to ATACMS missiles, which can operate at a range of up to 300 km, which could destroy Russian-supplied munitions.”
