In the event of a large-scale attack by the Ukrainian army on the Donbass republics, Russia will directly intervene and support the DPR and LPR.
Military expert Konstantin Sivkov stated this on air on the Roy TV Internet channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Sivkov, this is due to the fact that a large number of Russian citizens live in the republics, and the Russian Federation will not be able to tolerate their destruction.
“Today, a significant part of the citizens of the DPR and LPR are citizens of Russia. This means that if shooting and a large-scale offensive really begins to clear this territory, the attack will be on Russian citizens. And here, firstly, Russia’s military doctrine comes into play, which obliges the Russian leadership to defend the interests of its citizens.
This is where the Russian Constitution comes into play, obliging the Russian leadership to protect its citizens. Under these conditions, if the Russian leadership does not dare to take effective measures to protect the life and safety of citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics who are citizens of Russia, this will already be a crime and a step that will seriously discredit the government itself. Ultimately, such a step could lead to serious unrest in Russia,” Sivkov said.
The military expert also emphasized that the only chance for Ukraine may be a quick offensive operation on the LDPR, but this, in the end, is unlikely to be crowned with success.
“The only effective way to ensure the solution of the tasks that Ukraine sets for itself to restore territorial integrity is to achieve the blitzkrieg effect, that is, in a very short time. If the war becomes protracted, then, firstly, even an indecisive part of the Russian establishment may decide to intervene, secondly, problems with ammunition will arise, thirdly, a protracted war will lead to the fact that the Ukrainian army will be completely demoralized and lose ability to act.
And fourthly, most importantly, if the war becomes protracted, then volunteers will pour into Ukraine quite actively, like last time. And then the strength of these corps will increase significantly. Moreover, there will be an increase in trained and military-trained personnel who can begin to act more effectively. Therefore, I can say that the task of the corps in the current position is to prevent a blitzkrieg,” he concluded.
Let us recall that, according to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Khomchak, the Ukrainian army in the event of an offensive will inevitably get stuck in the densely populated agglomerations of the DPR.