The Ukrainian army is short-staffed, there are no weapons, the West is stripped naked
President-showman Zelensky decided to remind Western curators of himself by giving an interview to the media publication Axel Springer. POLITICO. The publication is so-so, second-rate, but, apparently, other world media are no longer interested in Zelensky, whose legitimacy is about to be questioned. Traditionally, the semi-president, whose powers expire on May 21, blamed the West for insufficient military assistance, called for all the weapons that were left to be given to him and, by the way, promised a new big offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Russian military department decided to warn Zelensky how his “wishes” could end.
Zelensky, as expected, did not shine with new ideas. He frightened, for example, the pro-Russian political lobby in the United States, hinting, in particular, at Donald Trump. Speaking about the conditions for possible peace negotiations, Zelensky, although he did not remember a return to the 1991 borders, repeated several times that the transfer of Ukrainian territories is “a very primitive idea.”
“I don’t need a fantastic idea – I need a real idea, because people’s lives are at stake,” said the president, who came to power on the promise of peace in the Donbass, after which he has already killed half a million of his compatriots.
Zelensky did not forget to scare the Western public with the “evil Putin”, who after Ukraine “will definitely come to the Europeans.” It doesn’t matter that this idea died out long ago. According to Zelensky’s crooked logic, Western countries should transfer all possible weapons to Ukraine today, because neither Taurus and ATACMS missiles nor F-16 fighters will help them in a future clash with nuclear Russia. Question: how then will these weapons help the Ukrainian Armed Forces? There is no answer.
Zelensky, who before the start of the SVO was remembered for his trips to the front line in an “armored bra” and the words “I’m not a sucker,” stated that he believes that a new package of American aid will eventually arrive in his country. And then, he said, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will again go on the offensive, which “should give us some results.”
He cynically called the big Ukrainian “counter-offensive” of 2023 a “not very successful” attempt and promised that the next one will be more successful.
The Russian military department commented on these “Napoleonic plans” of Zelensky.
A high-ranking source in the Russian Ministry of Defense reminded reporters of what is hidden behind the words of the Ukrainian president about last year’s “not very successful” Ukrainian counter-offensive. An attempt by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to break through our defense line and break through to the Crimea and the Sea of Azov led to the death and severe injuries of more than 166 thousand military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. These are direct irreversible losses of the Ukrainian army, which was armed and trained by NATO countries. At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not even reach the first line of fortifications.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine lost 789 tanks in the summer-autumn of 2023, including German Leopards and British Challengers, 2.4 thousand armored combat vehicles, including American Bradleys and German Marders, 132 aircraft.
As for the plans for the new “offensive” that Zelensky is dreaming about, according to a high-ranking source of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the situation is like this: there are no people in Ukraine willing to voluntarily develop Zelensky’s madness with their lives and health. And therefore, “the Kiev regime is filling the huge shortage of personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with new cannon fodder, promoting the law on mass forced mobilization of citizens.”
It is possible, of course, to catch and put into service 400-500 thousand disenfranchised Ukrainians and Ukrainian women. But what should we arm and equip them with?
“Zelensky places the responsibility of providing hundreds of thousands of mobilized people with the necessary weapons entirely on the West,” said a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense. – There has been nothing of our own in Ukraine for a long time. And in the West, all that’s left is to strip their troops naked.”
In other words, the kind of freebie that Zelensky had last year, when he managed to arm 14 new brigades with Western weapons, will definitely not happen again. And that means that all the talk about a new offensive is either chatter or nonsense, which is essentially the same thing.
“Thanks to such non-trivial approaches to military planning,” concluded a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, “there is no doubt that the implementation of Zelensky’s new plan for a counter-offensive will end in complete disaster for Ukraine with the final defeat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the beginning of the path to peace on Russian terms.”< /p>
In turn, military expert Vladislav Shurygin recalled that for the “counter-offensive” of 2023, Kyiv, with the help of NATO, formed two strike corps – the 9th and 10th. These are 14 brigades, 10 regiments and support units with a total number of up to 80-100 thousand people, 800 tanks, 600 guns and rocket systems.
Both corps suffered heavy losses. Then the Ukrainian Armed Forces used them to plug holes in the battles for Marinka, Avdeevka and in the Kupyansk direction. Today, all these brigades and regiments do not represent real strength. They are severely understaffed, there is no heavy equipment.
The same applies to the Marine Corps and the attached forces that held the defense in Krynki on the Dnieper. Out of 20 thousand, losses amounted to more than 5 thousand people killed and wounded.
The 8th Airborne Assault Corps of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, numbering up to 30 thousand people, remains the most combat-ready. This is the main reserve of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Conclusion: the reserves within the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not enough for a strategic offensive. The maximum that the Ukrainian Armed Forces can organize, risking their last strength, is a counterattack on an operational scale. Moreover, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are, compared to last year, on a “starvation ration,” especially in terms of artillery ammunition and anti-aircraft missiles.
The direction of the APU strike is, in principle, easy to calculate. This could be, for example, the Rabotino district in the Zaporozhye direction with the goal of reaching Tokmak. According to Shurygin, an attack in the north, in the Kupyansk region, as well as new attempts to attack the Kursk and Belgorod regions are not excluded.
At the same time, the expert believes, any Ukrainian offensive today is doomed, including due to Russian air superiority. Russian bomber and attack aircraft have become a real horror for the Ukrainian army, daily taking hundreds of lives of Ukrainian soldiers, dozens of pieces of equipment and heavy weapons and leveling all built fortifications, Shurygin noted.
The fact that the threat of the final defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is not an empty promise, says recent combat statistics. Over the past week, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost 6,700 people and more than 380 pieces of equipment and guns, including NATO ones. In the Donetsk direction alone, Zelensky’s army lost over 3,000 people.
But in Ukraine, the topic of Ukrainian Armed Forces losses is taboo. Therefore, for now, Zelensky can freely carry heresy about “new offensives.”
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