The death and heroism of Severodonetsk’s defenders give Ukraine the chance to use HIMARS - Zhirokhov

Mykhailo Zhirokhov, a military expert, historian, author of books and articles on the history of local conflicts in the 20th century, shared his perspective on Espreso TV.  

"From a military point of view, the withdrawal from Lysychansk was the right decision. I won't call it an alignment of the frontline. But the fact that, after the breakthrough near Zolote, it was necessary to withdraw from Lysychansk was obvious to anyone who understands at least something in military matters.

“The fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine held on to Severodonetsk for so long is a huge plus in terms of time. The death of those who fell in Severodonetsk provided an opportunity to prepare calculations for HIMARS, M777, and M105, which will arrive soon, and so on. This is what they gave us, the soldiers who fought for Severodonetsk. They won time for us," Zhirokhov explained.

He highlights the fact that Ukraine needs time to train soldiers to use Western weapons. He also believes that, although Ukrainians are eagerly waiting to see impressive results from the use of Western weapons, the actual impact will not be noticeable at the front for a long time.

"In order to use these weapons, we need prepared calculations. And in order to prepare calculations, we have to send military personnel to Poland, Lithuania and other countries for training. It takes more than a week. And reports suggesting that you can master HIMARS or anything else in a week are just nonsense. 

“More deliveries mean more prepared calculations. For this, people need to be redeployed away from the front and replaced with those who are newly mobilized. And they do not always have the right levels of training or motivation. So we could see a certain weakening of the front. That means that everything is interconnected here and it is not so easy. The West can now supply a lot of weapons. The Americans say that they can transfer all the weapons that are in service with the American units in Poland and Romania even tomorrow. But we currently have no one to fight with these weapons," he noted.

In addition, Zhirokhov is skeptical of statements suggesting that it is worth providing Ukraine with several dozen HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems and the situation at the front will change instantly.

"It used to be said that M-777 howitzers are the "wunderwaffe", now it is HIMARS, tomorrow it will be Patriot air defense, and the day after tomorrow - F16 aircraft. The length of the front is almost 2,500 km. You can do the math and calculate how many HIMARS we need to launch a front-wide counteroffensive. Now, due to the lack of prepared calculations, American advisers have developed a mobile artillery system - that is, mobile artillery groups that appear on one or another part of the front, strike and leave. And if you are still talking about filling the entire frontline with HIMARS, then you should count up all our "Uragans" and "Grads", and that will give you a better picture of how many we still need," Mykhailo Zhirokhov stressed.