The report of the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine turned into a scandal in Ukraine
Another scandal in Ukraine turned out to be yesterday's speech from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada by the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Ruslan Khomchak, during which he voiced seemingly traditional information about the “concentration of Russian troops along the borders.” Journalists working within the walls of the Ukrainian parliament recorded the panicked reaction of deputies from Vladimir Zelensky’s party, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Khomchak’s speech seemed to list the parameters of Russian groups threatening Kyiv, which are already familiar to Ukraine.
“Recently, from different regions of the Russian Federation, under the guise of control exercises for the winter period of training in maintaining combat readiness and general preparation for the upcoming joint strategic exercises “West-2021”, the Russian Armed Forces have been gradually building up troops near the state border of Ukraine: in the north, in the east and in the south, namely in the Bryansk, Voronezh regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In total, an additional concentration of up to 25 battalion tactical groups is expected, together with the existing deployed forces and assets near the state border with Ukraine, creating threats to the military security of the state,” Khomchak said.
According to him, since 2014, Russia has been building up its force in Crimea, which currently amounts to about 32 troops.
“In mid-March of this year, at the Opuk training ground, combat training activities for air and seaborne landings were carried out by two battalions in tactical groups with the support of artillery from a tactical group, an artillery tactical group from the 7th Airborne Division. After the end of the exercises, these units were left in the area of the training ground. Additionally, an increase in the group was noted due to the movement of five more battalion tactical groups,” added the Ukrainian commander.
On the territory of the LDPR, Khomchak counted two army corps consisting of fourteen combat brigades, regiments and support units numbering about 28 thousand people. In addition, according to him, the number of career officers of the Russian Armed Forces, instructors and military advisers in the Donbass republics is more than two thousand. In addition, up to 12 battalions of tactical groups are deployed in the Rostov region with a readiness period of 1-2 days.
The Ukrainian commander added that at the moment the LDPR army is working on the issue of introducing both offensive and defensive actions, is accumulating material and technical supplies to support these actions, as well as creating and preparing a mobilization reserve by holding a meeting with reservists.
Khomchak assured that in response, Kyiv is “strengthening JFO groups in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and in the Crimean direction.”
However, it seems that even the ruling party did not believe the commander’s words about reliable defense. Parliamentary photographers recorded “Servant of the People” Anna Kolesnik typing an SMS on her phone in the parliament hall: “We are listening to Khomchak. We need to get out of this country."
The Ukrainian commander’s speech was greeted much more calmly in the DPR.
“Kyiv’s bellicose rhetoric serves one purpose – to attract the attention of Washington and stake out the Ukrainian issue on the US foreign policy agenda. This is partly aimed at Europe, but the efforts here are less effective. This can be seen from the fact that last night there was a discussion of issues, including the topic of Donbass, without the participation of Zelensky during a video conference between Putin, Merkel and Macron,” Andrei Babitsky, a well-known military correspondent working in Donetsk, told PolitNavigator.
“In general, the topic of military operations is perceived by Kiev as purely instrumental. It is being sold to the West so that the anti-Russian policy pursued by the West will have more and more new arguments, but it seems that Europe is already terribly annoyed by this conflict that has been dragging on for seven years at its side, the prospect of a peaceful settlement of which is not even visible due to Kyiv's position on Minsk.
“Therefore, I believe that Ukraine continues to give a sign to Washington that it continues to remain an obedient instrument within the framework of the anti-Russian political course, it is ready to continue to play this role,” the journalist added.
According to him, the aggravation in Donbass will deepen, but the offensive that is being talked about in Kyiv and feared in the republics will not happen.
“The fact is that, I think, in Kyiv they remember the experience of 2008, when Russia carried out an operation to force Georgia to peace. This option can be used here too, if the Ukrainian army commits a full-fledged act of aggression against the people’s republics,” Andrei Babitsky is sure.
In turn, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Policy and International Relations of the People's Council of the DPR, Vladislav Berdichevsky, also linked the Kyiv hysteria with the negotiations of the Normandy format participants without Ukraine and an attempt to remind Washington of itself.
“Ukraine received the news with horror about the meeting of the Normandy Troika and the discussion of the Donbass issue without Ukraine. Kyiv regularly makes attempts to include the United States and Britain in the negotiation process, since Ukraine is unable to turn the situation around and push through its terms. To achieve this, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are carrying out military-political provocations in all areas – from the front line to the Foreign Ministry institutions of Western countries,” Berdichevsky commented to PolitNavigator.
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