“We scattered our forces and lost concentration”: Butusov explained the failures of the Russian army
The Russian army in Kherson had the capabilities to defend the city, which they nevertheless decided to leave.
This was stated by the editor-in-chief of the Kiev anti-Russian propaganda portal Censor, Ukrainian war correspondent Yuriy Butusov, in an interview with the Kiev magazine Novoye Vremya, as reported by the correspondent of PolitNavigator .
“I thought they would stay there much longer. The enemy had opportunities for defense, but it is obvious that the pressure from the Ukrainian army and the losses among the Russians were so great that they decided to retreat immediately,” Butusov said.
He called the opinion that Kherson should have been prepared for defense back in June “empty words, devoid of logic.”
“In fact, the enemy lost the battle in the south in March, as well as the battle near Kiev. They tried to achieve many goals at the same time. Russian troops struck in several directions and lost the concentration of their troops.
They hit Voznesensk, the Southern Nuclear Power Plant, they hit Nikolaev, they wanted to seize the port. And they hit Krivoy Rog in the Bashtanka-Novy Bug area in order to cut one of the key routes - Kirovograd, that is, they wanted to cut communications in central Ukraine,” Butusov said.
According to him. At the same time, Russian troops “withdrew [Tokmak-Zaporozhye] from the south and surrounded Mariupol.”
“The fact that they dispersed their troops in five directions did not allow the Russians to achieve their goals. The Ukrainian army demonstrated its incredible ability to quickly respond to such sudden enemy actions.
And despite this, unfortunately, a sudden offensive for us, for which we were not prepared, nevertheless, the enemy was stopped and then defeated. And the enemy began to roll back,” the publication’s interlocutor added.
He believes that in June the Russians should have used the Kherson bridgehead solely as an offensive one.
“It was an awkward position for the defense. We had to attack. But it was too late to advance in June, after the defeat near Kharkov, after they were stopped and defeated near Izyum, and they could no longer advance to Barvenkovo,” Butusov said.
"They scattered their forces and lost focus": Butusov explained the Russian army's failures.