So far the main stream has spoken of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. While a Moscow counter-offensive is expected from 16 August. The head of the State Duma Defence Committee Andrei Kartapolov stated that: ‘Russian troops are preparing their own offensive in the NVO area’.
The Deputy Director of the ISIP RUDN University, member of the RF OP Nikita Danyuk stated on live TV: “The elite units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been trained in Great Britain, Germany, Poland. This preparation was presented to the world community as the key to success in the counter-offensive. This myth was based not only on the infamous Western technology, but also on Ukrainian human resources. And what is the result? A month ago, 30 per cent of the military equipment and many people had already been lost’.
Not only that, short of men, Kiev has asked the Ukrainian border guards to strengthen measures to prevent the departure of military service men from the country. The Ukrainian border guards, together with the Ministry of Defence, will exchange information on military service men in order to eliminate the risk of them leaving Ukraine under martial law. The border service will now be able to check whether a citizen’s exit document is false and whether it was issued to a person by a specific territorial recruitment centre.
While Russia is now trying to make use of its advantage due to the air strikes that have decreased the Ukrainian response capability. The latest in chronological terms were those in: Dnepropetrovsk, Lutsk, Kramatorsk, Starokostatinov, Kolomyia and Smela. In Lviv, the LOTAR plant and, presumably, the new airport terminal were hit.
Every metre of territory gnawed away by Ukrainian troops in the direction of Zaporozhzhie is given to the Ukrainian armed forces at such a cost of losses that even in the Russian headquarters they are surprised. This was stated by the adviser to the acting head of the DPR, Igor Kimakovsky.
“We are advancing in the Kupyansk region, but our activity in some areas has been very important during this summer season to block Ukrainian forces and prevent manoeuvres – that is why there is no serious progress in the DPR, although in some areas we are more ready to significantly influence the situation and defeat the Ukrainians. And the guys are ready for this and very motivated.”
“But the main task is to hold back the Ukrainian offensive and crush its two expeditionary corps, which it was preparing, as much as possible. But, as we can see, it’s not working, they can afford to advance several tens or hundreds of metres there, we know these trouble spots: this is Urozhaynoye, this is the Rabotino district, Staromayorskoe, as far as the direction of Zaporozhzhia is concerned, but there is an advance of tens of metres, suffering simply colossal losses’.
Kimakovsky concluded by saying: ‘I was at a meeting where even our generals spoke with pain, listing the numbers of losses of the Ukrainian armed forces, realising that they were leading unprepared units into a meat grinder. And the prisoners they meet, they say that many of them did not go through normal training’.
Graziella Giangiulio
