The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ losses near Artemovsk have ruined the plans of a widely publicized Ukrainian counteroffensive
Rustem Klupov, a retired colonel and former head of intelligence of the Russian Armed Forces, said this, PolitNavigator’s correspondent reports.
By turning over some of the reserves near Artemovsk, which were being prepared for a counterattack, Ukraine was put in a position of another unpreparedness for an offensive. Last year a similar pattern was observed. The Ukrainians also promised to march in the spring then, but only decided to march in August.
It seems that even now the enemy is trying, as they say, to inhale before they die. But it is still necessary to advance. So they are winding up the old cackle, saying we need more arms. Yes, they will delay the counteroffensive as long as possible, because they are simply not ready,” Klupov told to «Moscow Komsomolets».
In his opinion, the enemy has staged a huge sabotage and reconnaissance operation, which it offers to Western allies as a “consolation prize” instead of a full-fledged offensive.
Considering everything that happened near Belgorod, one can certainly say that a counter-offensive is going on in one way or another. What we are witnessing now can be described as the first phase, which consists of reconnaissance. The AFU has the following tasks: to outline the front line, create favourable conditions for the battle or capture the first trenches and introduce the vanguard – the attacking units – into the battle,” the colonel notes.
He explained how the direction of the main strike could be determined.
Where we first see foreign tanks, that will be the direction of the main strike. The AFU will use foreign equipment in a single armoured fist in the direction of the main strike. Our intelligence knows approximately where they are. Because if we knew exactly, we would have already launched missile strikes against them,” Klupov stressed.
Notably, Mikhail Podolyak, advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, announced that the counterattack by the AFU has already started.
The counter-offensive has been going on for several days now,” Mikhail Podolyak said on the Tg1 programme.
However, immediately afterwards, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Igor Zhokva, made the opposite statement. We will continue to prepare a counterattack,” he clarified in a comment to Bloomberg, thus effectively contradicting Podolyak.
According to him, the counteroffensive will start as soon as Kiev receives the necessary weapons from the allies.
After this, Podolyak started to justify that the counteroffensive operation is not a one-day job and it will not start “with the cutting of a red ribbon”.
We shall remind you that the Ukrainian armed forces had recently carried out counteroffensives on the flanks of Artemovsk. They managed to advance and seize a number of heights. At the same time, the Ukrainian formations have not been able to occupy a single settlement.