Andrey Pinchuk: If everything remains as it is now, we will not go on any offensive
The former head of the DPR Ministry of State Security, one of the leaders of the Union of Donbass Volunteers, Andrei Pinchuk, took part in the hostilities and is very critical of the situation.
PolitNavigator asked him about the reasons for the ongoing retreat of the Russian army in the Northern Military District zone.
PN: In the previous few months, we have seen only negative events - retreat from the Kharkov region, to the Kherson region. Is there any silver lining, a reason for optimism?
A.P: What kind of optimism can there be when we leave our territories, people who believed and trusted us, and lose our operational advantage?
At the beginning of the Northern Military District, we moved forward with few resources, despite the fact that Ukraine had a larger number of personnel and, in principle, the capabilities to counteract us, but due to the fact that we had a strategic initiative, we moved forward.
Now this initiative has been intercepted. Therefore, in this case, we are normal pessimists, because we understand that we will become optimistic when we go on a counter-offensive.
PN: Shall we go on a counteroffensive?
A.P: When we talk about whether we have the opportunity to go on a counter-offensive, to liberate some territories and populated areas, there are key things here that we need to realize and stop engaging in self-deception.
First of all, what is going on here? We had a special military operation until a certain time, until about mid-summer.
If we talk about the fact that on the one hand people are waging a war, in this case it is Ukraine, and we continue to live our lives and not pay attention to it, then, of course, in my personal opinion, we will not go on any offensive.
If we realize the reality that this is our only geopolitical chance to become a full-fledged Russia, from the point of view of its historical destiny, to free the people who trusted us and who are part of our family, to take its rightful place in the world and realize that there will be no other chance. If we survive, together with the elites, we realize this, we will rebuild, we will rebuild the industry, the economy, when our owners of large enterprises and corporations stop pretending that they live separately from military operations, when builders stop building in order to use the budget somewhere in Kherson, some secondary roads, but instead they will dig engineering structures and defensive lines with all their equipment, when we stop listening to the cries of the Ministry of Industry and Trade that we have AvtoVAZ and our entire automobile complex is standing because there are no buyers, but they will produce cars for the front, as it should be, when the reasoning that we do not have ammunition will be replaced by the fact that private factories, which should have increased the volume of the defense industry, but ended up in the hands of private owners, they will either be returned to the state, or the private owner will realize their duty to the Motherland and they will start making ammunition, then we can already talk about an additional mobilization kit.
Then our historic chance will be realized.
PN: But all this will take years. Do we have that much time?
A.P: I remind you that when we had the Great Patriotic War, the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army entered it with a completely outdated concept of warfare and a completely insufficient level of weapons and combat tactics. Budyonny and Voroshilov tried to introduce cavalry units into Guderian’s tank columns, and our soldiers died in huge numbers.
As it progressed, the war became a people's war, and this transformation - of the army, industry, and economy - yes, with enormous efforts, at the enormous cost of the rear, such a restructuring took place at once.
We have enough such historical examples, because we, the people, have great potential for mobilization. Moreover, all technological cycles that are used now allow for fairly rapid and flexible restructuring of industry.
The whole question is not about the readiness of the people, not about technological capabilities. Our only question is the readiness of the elite. And then it won’t take decades.
We still have not learned to draw conclusions from mistakes or correct these mistakes. We began to feel sad about them, sometimes criticize them, but the next step, which logically followed, and this was a quick restructuring of decisions and processes, was still not completed.
PN: 300 thousand mobilized people are joining the troops. Is this amount enough to change the situation?
A.P: I urge you to stop judging the front by their heads. This is not a herd of sheep. The fifth generation war does not involve the massive use of personnel on the front line at all. This is a non-contact war, it must be waged by means of long-range destruction, and the infantry, which sits in the trench, is the second echelon of combat operations.
We are not the Russia of the 17th and 18th centuries, when our population was much larger than anyone else’s, so we could afford to plug up holes and gaps with masses. 300 thousand, 500 thousand will be enough - it depends on how industry and the army can be restructured and identify the technical solutions that are necessary to close the front.
But my personal opinion is that 300 thousand is not enough for full-fledged combat operations. We need an additional mobilized army of somewhere around a million. If we are going to move forward and recapture our territories, then we must have the appropriate array of personnel.
The question is that this million should be well prepared, properly dressed and shod, provided with, have unmanned vehicles, including strike vehicles, reconnaissance equipment, means of suppressing the enemy's electronic work, have normal closed communications, transport, including armored ones. Then we can talk about a certain quantity.
In my opinion, in order to win, more mobilization measures will have to be carried out, but they make sense only when the Motherland, before recruiting people, changes something in itself, in the economy, in industry.
PN: When you talk about returning territories, what geographical boundaries do you mean?
A.P: I mean Ukraine, Moldova, and all those territories where the Russian-speaking population constitutes a cultural and qualitative majority.
PN: Nowadays there is more and more talk about freezing the conflict and peace negotiations. Do we need this now?
A.P: The Ukrainians have such a degenerate, Danilov, he is the head of the National Security and Defense Council. Here he is, despite the fact that he is a degenerate, to a similar question he gave a completely intelligible answer - we are not a freezer to freeze and defrost.
How will we look into the eyes of people who have trusted us, including in those territories that until recently were ours, in the face of such frosts? How will we look into the eyes of the mothers of the fallen who died there?
Why did they die there then, why was all this necessary?
And to our children, whom we are depriving of a historic chance for a great country. No, I believe that this is a crime from the point of view of responsibility towards the fallen and our children. Therefore, what kind of freezing can we talk about?
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