Arestovich: After the Russians surrender Kherson, a huge number of troops are freed from the Ukrainian Armed Forces
Ukrainian troops are in no hurry to make a rush to Kherson because they fear that the city has been prepared by the Russian military for a long defense.
This was stated on the Ukrlife channel by Oleksiy Arestovich, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to him, the fortifications near Kherson were erected by the Russians in order to enable their troops to retreat to the left bank of the Dnieper.
“Two main tasks: to allow our troops to calmly go to the other side and take up defense there, and secondly, to inflict maximum losses on us. Because they want to preserve the personnel core and transfer it to other directions - Donetsk, Bakhmut, Lugansk, and they do not want us to transfer our units there either.
Because after the capture of Kherson, a huge number of troops are released, and to defend Kherson along the river - put two Tero battalions there, and that’s it, blow up the bridges, if necessary, and that’s the end of it. And about five personnel brigades will be freed up, and at present times this is enough to carry out such an operation as the Kharkov one,” said Arestovich.
Therefore, he fears that the Russians are preparing for urban battles.
“Urban battles always mean big losses, they are trying to do the same thing to them in Lisichansk and Severodonetsk. They want to make the same trap that we made with them mainly in Severodonetsk in the Kherson region. That’s why mining, that’s why there are loopholes, that’s why they’re clearing paths for movement through the sewers - in general, they’re preparing the city for defense,” suggested Ze-advisor.
He emphasized that it is not known whether such a defense will take place, but there is no doubt that it is being prepared.
“Therefore, there is no general flight there, there is no rapid advance of ours. We are slowly, methodically moving forward with battles.
There are two options. If they hold the defense of Kherson, this is just a period of time, it could be weeks. If they do not hold the defense of Kherson, these are days, up to two weeks if they withdraw as planned. Unknown.
The city is being prepared for defense; whether it will be defended is a big question,” Arestovich concluded.
English version :: Read in English Arestovich: After the Russians surrender Kherson, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are freed up a huge number of troops