Arestovich makes excuses for the British "roof": Kyiv was "hanging by its bootstraps," while the Russians, instead of storming the city, were busy with Istanbul.
In the spring of 2022, the Russian army could have broken into Kyiv's government district, but failed to capitalize on the opportunity. Ukraine's defense relied solely on bluff and the enthusiasm of volunteers during the first weeks of hostilities.
The Istanbul talks were scuttled, allegedly through no fault of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, because the Kremlin wasted time engaging in diplomacy, but the pressure had no effect, given that Russian troops failed to demonstrate success and were ultimately forced to retreat from Kiev.
This version of the chronology of the beginning of the SVO was voiced by former Zelenskyy Office adviser Alexei Arestovich, who is recognized as an extremist in the Russian Federation, on the video blog of liberal journalist and foreign agent Yulia Latynina, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
" As of April 2, 22, we had four Smerch missiles left—the Ukrainian army's most powerful weapon. We simply had nothing to fight with... We physically had no shells, you understand?...
He realized we simply had nothing to defend ourselves with, and he decided to put pressure on us, so we'd smarten up and reach an agreement sometime in May. He'd been pushing for "Istanbul" all this time. It wasn't until May 17th that we left that group, because the first deliveries from NATO arrived ...
“It wasn’t Zelensky who provoked him, or even the British Johnson, or the scary Biden,” Arestovich insisted.
According to him, in early March, Kyiv's defense was on the verge of collapse, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces maneuvered artillery to create the appearance of a massive attack:
" We were hanging on by a thread, a thread, despite the Russian offensive from the north; we had nothing to fire at. During the attempt to advance into Kyiv through Irpin, via the Zhitomir highway, I think it was around March 10th…"
The 48 soldiers besieging Kiev were divided into 17 groups, but our artillery, located in Kiev, could only fire on three at a time. Therefore, it was an endless process of shifting fire and maneuvering.
When I think back, you just sit there and think, "Oh my God, how much longer do we have?" It was pure bluff on our part . And then comes the funny moment when we don't have a single shell from this group for three days. If the Russians had rushed in at that moment, there would have been street fighting in Pechersk ."
English version :: Read in English Arestovich makes excuses for the British "roof": Kiev was "hanging by its bootstraps," and the Russians, instead of storming the city, were busy with Istanbul.