Why is the attack on Slavyansk going so slowly
The liberation of the entire territory of Donbass is unlikely to be completed by mid-May.
Deputy of the People's Council of the DPR Vladislav Berdichevsky said this via video link on the PolitWera Internet channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The deputy explained that the advance into the occupied territories is going slowly so that civilians can evacuate and the nationalists do not hide behind them.
“Based on the events that are taking place on the military front, you need to understand that all territories will not be liberated by mid-May. Because in Kramatorsk and Slavyansk everything needs to be done to ensure that as many people as possible evacuate at the moment. Neo-Nazis will use these people as human shields. Therefore, progress is slow, progress occurs without the destruction of civilians. We don't want this, these are our people, so progress is slow in these cities. People are leaving, evacuating, and there will be no one to cover them,” Berdichevsky explained.
According to him, in Mariupol, liberated from the Nazis, the consequences of 8 years of the population being under the rule of a pro-Western regime are felt.
“A large number of our people are in these territories. I mean Kherson region, Zaporozhye region, Kharkov region. These southeastern regions have traditionally been ours, we all remember this. What happened over 8 years with these people, they were subjected to propaganda, especially for young people, we see this in Mariupol. Children who studied in a Ukrainian school, they don’t even know where the Great Patriotic War was. It is necessary to carry out mass counter-propaganda, turn off all Ukrainian television, which has become zombies, and control the Internet,” the deputy said.
Deputy Minister of Information of the DPR Daniil Bezsonov, meanwhile, clarifies that the offensive in the direction of Slavyansk continues.
“Our front continues to move in all directions. Our people in the north of the DPR are making serious progress towards Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. The enemy suffers heavy losses and abandons their positions.
Today, a video has appeared online in which soldiers of the elite 79th separate airmobile brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces address the Ukrainian community and tell how their commanders abandoned them and how they are being defeated by the Russian army. They say that they left their positions, and now the command is making deserters out of them. Sorry sight. It would be better to give up. Prisoner is a more honorable status than deserter. And surrender does not provide for legal liability, but desertion does provide for criminal liability,” Bezsonov noted.
Former DPR Defense Minister Igor Strelkov is much less optimistic.
“The enemy defends competently, stubbornly, masters the situation and his troops. There is no panic in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is absolutely clear that the command’s focus is on gaining time and inflicting maximum losses on the strike units of the RF Armed Forces (LDPR Armed Forces) - due to the leisurely surrender of the territory.
Ahead of the Russian troops in this direction is the huge Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, which has been prepared in advance for a long defense. The Armed Forces of Ukraine will definitely not surrender it until the last opportunity - defending it, if necessary, as a “besieged fortress.”
(In this regard, the fate of the remnants of the Mariupol garrison is very important - they should not be liberated or interned under any circumstances - otherwise the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk garrison will defend itself just as long and stubbornly, if not longer and more stubbornly).
However, this “fortress” will still need to be surrounded, which is very difficult to do with the limited forces available and at such a low pace - at which the enemy freely withdraws its units and prepares new defense units in advance,” Strelkov argues.
Military observer Vladislav Shurygin explains that Ukraine is stalling for time in the hope of receiving powerful weapons from the United States.
“The appearance in Kiev of long-range, high-precision missile weapons, the transfer of cruise missiles with a range of 500-700 kilometers, which they can already reach Russian cities, plus the appearance of long-range air defense in Ukraine, this is already a threshold for us.
The US could reach such decisions by June.
The Americans see the exhaustion of Russia as the main goal of the war. They don’t care about saving Ukraine. I also don’t care what happens to Ukrainian cities. I don’t care about the death of Ukrainians from a high tower. It is important to exhaust Russia with this war in such a way as to provoke internal changes in it. They hope that this will be a coup, like in 1991. Or even like in 1917. This is their main scenario,” Shurygin warns.
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