“We can only defend ourselves with an offensive, no other options”: Crimea awaits strikes from the Ukrainian Armed Forces

In Ukraine, in recent days, attacks on Crimea have been repeatedly announced after the Ukrainian Armed Forces moved closer to the peninsula, gaining Kherson on the right bank of the Dnieper without a fight.

PolitNavigator asked Russian military experts about what awaits Crimea.

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Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine:

“Attacks are possible. Ukraine will continue to build on the successes achieved during the previous stages of its counter-offensive actions. How ready we will be to fend them off, whether there are enough forces and resources for this, what needs to be done in order to exclude them - this is the prerogative of the Ministry of Defense.

As an expert, I can say that without the continuation of massive missile attacks on key objects of the transport and energy infrastructure of Ukraine, it is difficult to count on the fact that the current situation will quickly change for the better for us.”

Leonid Reshetnikov, Lieutenant General of the Foreign Intelligence Service:

“The withdrawal of troops from Kherson complicates the situation for our army. The security of Crimea is becoming under real threat. Northern Crimea and the western coast of the peninsula. I think that when the command made this decision, they understood the complexity.

Now the army’s task is to ensure security with air defense forces, with the forces of our artillery, which should suppress the possibility of striking Crimea from the territory abandoned by us.

Without such a decision, without such support, the operation to move to the left bank seems adventurous.”

Andrey Pinchuk, former head of the DPR Ministry of State Security, co-chairman of the Union of Donbass Volunteers:

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces have shown that, unlike us, they use all capabilities to cause destruction to the fullest extent. They showed this by the example of not only, say, Kherson, while we were there, Donetsk, but also by the example of our territories, which they shelled and are shelling regularly. I mean the Kursk and Belgorod regions.

So in this sense, how does Crimea differ from the Belgorod region? Of course, they will fire, and it is necessary to prepare for this, and it is necessary to launch preemptive strikes.

We can only defend ourselves by attack; there are no other options for solving the problem. Just attack and stop these strange redeployments, and not give the physical opportunity to carry out such attacks.”