Ukraine confirms the regrouping of Russian troops also in the east with the aim of maintaining their positions in Kherson and Zaporizhia
The change in strategy that the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on March 25 – the concentration of troops in the “liberation” of eastern Ukraine – is beginning to materialize. This was confirmed this Saturday by the adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, Mijailo Podoliak. “With the rapid withdrawal of the Russians from kyiv and Chernigov … now their priority objective is to withdraw to the east and south,” he said. The Ukrainian media and social networks showed videos of the arrival of Army units in Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, towns abandoned by the Kremlin troops in their withdrawal.
Sappers immediately proceeded to demining the area. And, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, “before leaving Bucha, the occupation forces mined civilian buildings, infrastructure and other areas.” Antonov airport in Hostomel has also been emptied of Russian forces. It was occupied from the first day of the invasion.
For his part, the governor of the Chernigov region, Viacheslav Chaus, also confirmed that the Russian forces “are withdrawing” from the Chernigov area, a city near the border with Belarus, which has been almost destroyed and in which its authorities They speak of almost 400 dead and the same number of wounded. In the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and in Slavutich, the city where its workers live, there is not a single Russian soldier left either.
“Russian troops are being transferred, not only to Donbass, Kharkov and Izyum, as initially announced, but also to the Sumy region,” according to the head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, Dmitro Zhivitski. Some of those forces “are returning to Russia,” he added.
In all this new configuration of forces, Izyum, located southeast of Kharkov, plays a key role, since it is the gateway to Donbas. Its control supposes for the Russians to close the way to the Ukrainian Army in its attempt not to lose the east. Except for its southern part, Izyum is practically in the hands of Russian troops, who expect a counterattack at any moment and the arrival of reinforcements from the Russian region of Belgorod, where a fuel depot was attacked on Friday to apparently hinder precisely such movement.
The advisor to the Presidency of Ukraine, Oleksiy Arestovich, estimates that Russia’s immediate intention today is to “take Mariupol, pocket our forces in Donbas and strengthen their positions in Kherson and Zaporizhia”, provinces occupied in the first days of the invasion with troops arriving from Crimea.
Earlier this week, the head of the ministry, Sergei Shoigu, considered that what Moscow defined as the “first phase of the special operation” had ended, adding that “the combat potential of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been reduced (…) they have suffered damage significant”. A decrease that, he implied, allowed to focus on the Donbas.
Criticism of the decision
Thus, the Russian intelligence officer and former commander-in-chief of the Donetsk rebel forces, Igor Strelkov, whose real surname is Guirkin, was critical of that decision days later. In an interview he claimed that “the propitious climatic moment to take kyiv was wasted.” While he warned that the heavy casualties suffered by the Russian Army, the defections and refusal to fight in Ukraine of many Russian enlisted soldiers on temporary contracts could jeopardize the operation in Donbas. Strelkov stated that “since Moscow denies the fact of war and does not introduce martial law, it lacks real mechanisms to force servicemen who do not want to fight to honor their contracts.”
On the morning of this Saturday, the offensive continued at other points. Long-range Russian cruise missiles hit the Ukrainian cities of Poltava, Kremenchug and Dnipro, according to Poltava Governor Dmitro Lunin. Fuel depots were attacked. Lunin assured that it is about “weakening the capabilities of our Army in the face of the offensive in Donbas (…) this is the objective that Putin has set himself to celebrate Victory Day on May 9,” in the Red Square of Moscow.
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