Ukraine, war | Ukraine promises to “panic” in Russia

Ukraine has yet to launch its announced spring offensive, with the goal being to retake as much of the country as possible from Russian-occupied parts of the country. More and more drone attacks and acts of sabotage against Russian oil depots and railways in recent days indicate that an attack is imminent.

At the beginning of the war, many countries were reticent when it came to major arms shipments to Ukraine, in part because Western leaders were skeptical about how long Ukraine would be able to withstand Russia’s war of aggression.

– Not many countries in the world believed that Ukraine could hold out, says Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Havrilov in a recent interview. The Independent.

Now, however, the country’s military forces are trained in a number of tanks, such as the British Challenger, the American Abrams and Bradley, and the German Leopard. At the end of April, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that more than 98 percent of the promised vehicles are already in Ukraine. All of them are much more advanced than the old Soviet models that are mainly used by Russia.

Russia will panic

When and exactly where the Ukrainian Spring Offensive will be launched is still a closely guarded secret.

– But when that happens, Russia will panic. You will see a lot of panic, says Havrilov, who believes the Russian people do not understand the scale and intensity of the war.

Jorn Sund Henriksen: The Ukrainian offensive may have already begun

And if you look at Russia’s state-run news agencies at the time of writing — Monday night — there is no indication that a Ukrainian attack is about to happen. Ria There is one case that parts of the population are being evacuated in Zaporizhia Province in anticipation of a “possible Ukrainian attack in the coming days”, but the evacuation, according to RIA, is only a “temporary but necessary measure”.

“As soon as the Ukrainian forces return, people will be able to go home,” Vladimir Rogov, a spokesman for the Russian occupation government in Zaporizhye, told the Russian News Agency.

Otherwise, only claims for Ukrainian losses can be compensated RIA Pages about the war 55 Ukrainian fell The soldiers are here 40 Ukrainians fell The soldiers are there.

I think Russian tactics will crack

Havrilov uses The Independent interview, among other things, to talk about Russia’s population and the media coverage they are subjected to:

– They still do not understand that propaganda shows a false picture of what is really happening on the ground. This war will be won on the ground, says Havrilov, not on television, not on the Internet.

Also read: Alleged Russians made a huge mess when they dug trenches

He claims to the British newspaper that the Kremlin is hiding the truth about the huge Russian losses on the battlefield, but that this tactic will show cracks once Ukraine begins to regain the areas lost in early 2022 and in 2014, and the number of Russian casualties. Continue to rise.

– You cannot deceive your people for so many years… especially if they start to see teams on the ground, they start to see dead and wounded, they see families losing their men. No one can hide the death of your son, husband or brother. Moscow will suffer the consequences, says Havrilov.

Prepare for the victory of 2023

– I would not be surprised if someday, perhaps this month or next, we will see something that contributes to the immediate collapse of Russian strategy or its military economy, – adds the Deputy Minister of Defense.

many military analysts predict That the Russian front might collapseIt also happened this fall in Kherson in the south and Kharkiv in the east.

In the past six months, the front has moved with difficulty. The Russian forces advanced a few kilometers here and there, mainly in Bakhmut, but also in smaller cities and towns such as Kremina, Volidar, Avdiivka and Marginka. Both norwegian and International military experts The progress has been described as minimal, when one takes into account the heavy losses suffered by the Russians. At the same time, the Ukrainian has

– An insignificant city at a very high price, Lieutenant-Colonel Geir Hagen Carlsen concluded to Netavizn at the beginning of March, when people began to understand that Bakhmut was becoming more and more difficult for the Ukrainians to keep. The city is still not completely lost, although the Ukrainians now own only a small part of the ruined city.

Ukraine is now preparing to resolve the war in its favor during the year 2023:

– I can only say that we are doing everything we can to end the war as soon as possible. “I really want 2023 to be the year of victory,” Havrilov concluded.

By the way, this is not the first time that Havrilov has predicted war. In late November, exactly one week after Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson, he stated that he believed the war would end in the spring of 2023. At this time, the Ukrainian army was still advancing, but Havrilov entered in with a warning that it could be a protracted battle if Russia deployed reinforcements.

– If that happens, the war will take some time. My feeling is that this war will be over by the end of spring, Havrilov said at the time.