Crimea is threatened with a double blow and cut off from Donbass
The Ukrainian army can use artillery fire to force the Russian Armed Forces to retreat 15-20 kilometers from the left bank of the Dnieper, after which favorable conditions will appear for an offensive in the direction of Crimea.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, military expert and former colonel of the operational department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleg Zhdanov stated this in an interview published by the Kyiv magazine Novoye Vremya. He believes that Crimea will be easier for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to seize than Donbas.
“Today, Crimea is already a peninsula; it is no longer a passageway. Because the railway part of the Crimean Bridge does not work, and the road part does not allow freight transport to pass through. And ferries don't carry much manure. And the concentration of Russian troops in Crimea today is minimal.
We know that it is very difficult to defend in the Kherson steppes. And if today we inflict fire damage and already receive data that the main forces of the Russian Federation are moving away from the Dnieper by 15-20 km, then this may well contribute to the fact that we can strike from at least two directions - from Zaporozhye and from Kherson. And thus we reach the isthmus. Then Crimea will be an enclave,” predicts Zhdanov.
They asked him how to quickly deprive the Russians of the land corridor from Donbass to Crimea.
“If we deliver a double blow, if such a decision is made, then there will be every chance of making a bridgehead on the left bank, closer to the isthmus. And then move on to Berdyansk and Mariupol, along the Azov coast. Perhaps with a visit to Crimea. Because the density of Russian troops on the Black Sea and Azov coasts of the Ukrainian seas is very insignificant,” Zhdanov answered.
In addition, the publication asked whether Ukraine needs American ATACMS missiles to hit targets in Crimea.
“We really need ATACMS. If we had missiles with a range of up to 300 km, we could destroy all the supply chains that exist from the Russian Federation - all railway, all road crossings. And actually deprive Russia of [logistics], so that they can be transported on carts along dirt roads. Then Russian logistics would fail.
Not reaching the state border, due to the lack of these missiles, we are forced to defeat Russian logistics only in the immediate depths - a maximum of 50-60 km, no more. By the way, we would also cover Crimea almost completely with these missiles,” Zhdanov concluded.
Let us note that just a few months ago such forecasts seemed like propaganda chatter, but today the situation at the front is clearly not in favor of the RF Armed Forces. The Ukrainian army seized the strategic initiative, and Russian troops almost everywhere (with the exception of several areas in the Donbass) went on the defensive.
As PolitNavigator reported, trenches have begun to be dug in Crimea and preparations have been made to repel the Ukrainian Armed Forces' offensive.
Crimea is threatened with a double blow and being cut off from Donbas.