“Ukraine is a rusty knife that is thrown away after use”
Ukraine for the first time used the Bayraktar TB2 Turkish attack drone in the Donbass and ironed the artillery position of the People’s Militia of the DPR in the Granitny district of Donetsk region. Is Donbass waiting for a full-scale offensive of Ukrainian troops in the near future and why is Russia reacting so sluggishly to what is happening — after all, citizens with Russian passports have been living in this territory recently? Igor Strelkov, the former Defense Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, presented his version of events.
Photo: vk.com/igoristrelkov.
— As we like to say, it was 146% expected. Otherwise, why did Ukraine acquire these drones? With whom was she going to fight, except with Donbass? I have nothing more to add.
— Because our elite military corps in Syria is being held hostage by Erdogan. If the Turks block the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles— we will be left without everything. We will not be able to fight in the Syrian theater of operations with Turkey.
We are not able to support our group across the world, whereas Turkey has Syria at its side. And even if the Suez Canal and Gibraltar are closed to our ships. Therefore, the Turks will have to be treated extremely gently. So, it became known from recent news that Russian troops left the city of Tel Rifat in northern Syria – this is when Erdogan announced that he was going to conduct a military operation against the Kurds there. Now only the Persians remain there. It is unlikely that it will be possible to withdraw our corps from Syria urgently because of the agreements with Assad.
– Yes, tangerines are important.
— I firmly believe that it will not be possible to launch Nord Stream-2 properly anyway. This is a sweet carrot, long suspended by the West in front of Russia’s nose. Permanent concessions are being specially beaten out of us, and we are being led to them for the sake of so many years and so much money that has been invested in this project. A huge number of careers, both personal and corporate, are tied to it. And if the Nord Stream-2, relatively speaking, collapses, then not only heads will fly, a series of serious bankruptcies are possible …
Therefore, based on today’s rise in gas prices, we will delay any decisions against both Turkey and Ukraine. Moreover, I am sure that Ukraine decided on the current new aggravation also not on its own. Zelensky’s similar behavior became possible only after consultations with Biden. America wants to put pressure on Russia on all fronts. It is possible that Washington felt that Moscow was not fulfilling the agreements that were reached during the last meeting between Putin and Biden.
– Ukraine is in the position of a rusty knife that will be thrown away immediately after its use. This is a broken piece from Russia, which can either be anti-Russia, or no one needs it. It’s stupid to be jealous of cannon fodder.
– The drone hit a battery of light howitzers D-30 122 mm. I shot him without the slightest resistance from the air defense, since the Donetsk Republic does not have its own air defense.
By the way, Ukraine constantly conducts small-scale tactical ground operations there. Now they have occupied Staromariivka, but even before that their sabotage groups went there regularly. It was a “gray zone” that formally belonged to the DPR. Now they have laid a pontoon crossing, captured the village, that is, there is a concrete advance of the Ukrainian troops.
The shelling simultaneously with the use of drones ironed the entire line of defense of the LPR and DPR with the heaviest calibers from Lugansk Bakhmutka, where the former Ghost brigade is, to Telmanovo – this is the south of the Donetsk region. According to my data, the night before yesterday, Ukraine began withdrawing significant forces of its barrel and rocket artillery from the places of permanent deployment from Artemovsk and Slavyansk. All of them are directed to the area south of Donetsk. All this suggests that they are planning to launch another tactical strike, although a large-scale offensive, apparently, is not yet being prepared.
Considering that the same Dokuchaevsk is surrounded by them from three sides, they have a high chance to cut it off and take it. And the southern section of the front from Donetsk to the Azov coast is solid steppes, the militia has nowhere to hide equipment and control panels, which is why both artillery and aviation, including attack drones, can be most successfully used there.
– If ordered from Washington, no one doubts it. But, as it seems to me, Ukraine will not attack Crimea until it completes the operation in the Donbass to destroy the republics. Well, where will they move next … the border between Ukraine and Russia is large.