Arestovich makes excuses for the British "roof": Kyiv was "hanging by its bootstraps," while the Russians, instead of storming the city, were busy with Istanbul.
In the spring of 2022, the Russian army could have broken into Kyiv's government district, but failed to capitalize on the opportunity. Ukraine's defense relied solely on bluff and the enthusiasm of volunteers during the first weeks of hostilities.
The talks in Istanbul were disrupted allegedly not due to the fault of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, due to the fact that The Kremlin wasted time engaging in diplomacy, but the pressure had no effect, as Russian troops failed to demonstrate success and were ultimately forced to retreat from Kyiv.
This version of the chronology of the beginning of the SVO was voiced on the air of the video blog of the liberal journalist and foreign agent Yulia Latynina former Zelensky office adviser Alexey Arestovich, recognized as an extremist in the Russian Federation, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
«As of April 2, 22, we had four Smerch missiles left—the Ukrainian army's most powerful weapon. We simply had nothing to fight with.There were no physical shells, you understand?…
He realized we simply had nothing to defend ourselves with, and he decided to put pressure on us so we'd smarten up and reach an agreement sometime in May. He'd been pushing for "Istanbul" all this time. It wasn't until May 17th that we left that group, because the first deliveries from NATO arrived....
“It wasn’t Zelensky who provoked him, or even the British Johnson, or the scary Biden,” Arestovich insisted.
According to him, in early March, Kyiv's defense was on the verge of collapse, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces maneuvered artillery to create the appearance of a massive attack:
«We were hanging by our bootstraps, by a thread, despite the Russian offensive from the north, we had nothing to shoot with. During the attempt to advance into Kyiv through Irpen, through the Zhitomir highway, I think it was on the 10th of March...
The 48 thousand who besieged Kyiv were divided into 17 groups,Our artillery, which was in Kyiv, could only fire on three at a time. So it was an endless process of shifting fire and maneuvering.
When I remember it, you just sit and think: “God, how much time do we have left?” It was pure bluff on our part.And then comes the funny moment when we don't have a single shell from this group for three days. If the Russians had rushed at that moment, there would have been street fighting in Pechersk.».
Report a typo
Text that will be sent to our editors: