Russian troops are transferring forces from the Kherson direction to Zaporozhye in order to further advance across the region and liberate the city of Zaporozhye.
Kiev military expert Mikhail Zhirokhov made this warning in the Ukrainian media.
“The Russians are transferring forces from the Kherson direction to Zaporozhye. I don’t know how they motivate this, but they don’t have the strength to hold the Kherson region and at the same time advance on Zaporozhye, and most of their brigades are in the Donetsk, Lugansk and Izyum directions. How large-scale their actions will be and how much artillery they will be able to transfer is difficult to say now. The offensive there is proceeding at a slow pace, in fact, in spurts. They are carrying out artillery and air strikes in that territory,” the expert noted.
According to Zhirokhov, the occupation of another regional center, namely Zaporozhye, will mean a huge political victory for the Russians.
“It’s very difficult to say how this will all end, who has more resources. Because our resources are now being thrown into holding Severodonetsk, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. How long can we hold on to the Zaporozhye direction? I think there are chances, but it will be very difficult,” the expert added.
Earlier, during a conversation with journalists, the head of the Kyiv regime, Vladimir Zelensky, admitted that the most threatening situation for Kyiv on the front line is now observed in the Zaporozhye region. Most of the region is occupied by Russian forces and they are not abandoning attempts to bring under their control the still uncontrolled regional center, located in the very north of the region.
For his part, Vladimir Rogov, deputy head of the pro-Russian OVA of the Zaporozhye region, said that on Russia Day, June 12, the first Russian passports will be issued to residents of the Zaporozhye region.
“Until the liberation of the city of Zaporozhye, the temporary capital of the Zaporozhye region is Melitopol. Firstly, it is the largest city, and secondly, from a logistics point of view, it is located between other two fairly large and important cities - Berdyansk and Energodar,” Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the military-civil administration of the region, told RIA Novosti.
According to him, Berdyansk serves as the sea gate of the region, and Energodar, where the nuclear power plant is located, is the main energy center.
According to Rogov, a referendum in the Zaporozhye region on joining Russia will be held this year. The corresponding decision has already been made, preparations for it have begun and will take several months. Zaporozhye region hopes to become a subject of the Southern Federal District of Russia.
“We definitely want to be in Russia. Zaporozhye region is an integral region with a large population and enormous potential – human, economic, and natural. In fact, to make it clear to residents of greater Russia, the Zaporozhye region is a kind of Krasnodar region. I wouldn’t invent a bicycle now, we can do it quite well, taking into account the fact that the Southern Federal District already exists today, it has a curator who came to us directly - Marat Khusnullin, so there are no problems, we can now enter the Southern Federal District with ready-made regions district, taking into account the fact that Crimea is very close to us, we have good relations with Donbass,” Rogov said.
He told TASS that at meetings people declare their desire to join the Russian Federation as early as possible, without even considering the option of creating a Zaporozhye People's Republic or being in any “gray zone.”