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Russian army lacks power to capture Pokrovsk in this offensive campaign - military expert

5 September, 2024 Thursday
17:57

Military expert Dmytro Zhmailo says that the Ukrainian Armed Forces' asymmetric actions have significantly adjusted the Russian army's plans for this year

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He said this on Espreso TV.

"The Russians will continue to try to squeeze everything out. They will try to build up the reserves of the Center grouping of troops, which the invaders are concentrating in the Pokrovsk direction and which have hardly been pulled back to the Kursk region. Now the Russians are not using armored vehicles, first of all, because there are fewer of them, and the life of a Russian soldier or officer is much less valuable than a tank or some artillery unit. That is why the enemy keeps the equipment, and what comes from the territory of the Russian Federation is of lower quality, to put it mildly," commented Dmytro Zhmailo.

According to him, even the latest models of Russian equipment captured by Ukrainian defenders, such as the T-90M Proryv tanks, were equipped with a 1992 gun. This once again proves that the latest Russian technologies turn out to be "soap bubbles.”

"However, the Russians can move, but the zone of this movement has already narrowed, despite the fact that they continue to attack along the entire front line and seem to be trying to advance. The invaders will continue to accumulate reserves. I assume that they will not have enough forces in this offensive campaign to capture Pokrovsk. Will they be able to approach it? I think it is possible. Will they be able to break through Selydove somewhere? Because until the enemy resolves the issue of Selydove, they will not be able to move on Pokrovsk without receiving a flanking attack. Therefore, it is too early, as they say, to "give up" on Pokrovsk. The question here is whether the Russians will generate enough forces and reserves," the military expert said.

Zhmailo added that a few weeks ago, when the Russian forces began to pull back from the southern direction, Strelkov (Igor Girkin, a retired officer of the Russian Armed Forces, former FSB colonel, war criminal, terrorist), who is now in a Russian prison, panicked and said that this should not be done, otherwise Ukrainians would start cutting a corridor to the Azov Sea.

"Accordingly, the Russians are in a dilemma, because they need to maintain the front line to protect themselves from Ukrainian attacks, and in the Kursk region they need to somehow localize our bridgehead, and it is also important to continue the offensive on Pokrovsk, to level the front line. Otherwise, the entire offensive summer campaign of the Russian army will be reduced to nothing, which means over 70,000 killed and wounded. The enemy is now facing a great dilemma. Therefore, our asymmetric actions, if not completely broken, have greatly adjusted in our favor all the enemy's plans for this year," summarized the co-founder and executive director of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation.

  • On September 5, Ukraine's General Staff reported that 180 combat engagements took place over the past day. The situation remained tense in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove directions.
  • Oleksii Hetman, a reserve major of the Ukrainian National Guard, believes that by late September or early October, the Russian offensive resources will be exhausted.
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