Russian official: The liberation of Odessa will have to wait
Odessa, which has been waiting for liberation from the Ukrainian Nazis since 2014, again faces the prospect of further occupation after the Russian army retreats from Kherson, admitted the speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov.
“Kherson is the path to Odessa, it is a bridgehead on the Right Bank. And, apparently, it was precisely the fact that in the near future we were not planning large-scale offensive operations from this bridgehead that made its retention pointless. This means that the liberation of Odessa will have to wait. Let’s be patient and trust our military leadership that it was advisable to do this,” Konstantinov said in a statement.
He believes that the Russian army had the opportunity to hold Kherson.
“Leaving Kherson is a military, not a political decision. The political could consist in turning the city into an impregnable fortress, a kind of Stalingrad on the Dnieper, which defends itself to the last possible opportunity. There was a political necessity for this: since we are talking about the regional center of the Russian Federation, and it is impossible to simply surrender a successfully defended territory without reputational losses.
Comparisons of the evacuation of Kherson with various historical events have already been made many times. And with the abandonment of Moscow by our troops in September 1812, and with the failure of the Red Army to abandon Kyiv in September 1941.
In the first case, the decision was made by the military, the army was preserved, after a month of occupation Moscow was liberated, and three months later the remnants of Napoleon’s army were expelled from Russia. In the second, political reasons were decisive. This led to the death of the Southwestern Front and predetermined the loss of Crimea and Donbass, and almost the entire Left Bank.
We returned to Kyiv after more than two years of bloody, grueling battles. Here's a comparison.
Of course, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not the Wehrmacht or Napoleon’s Grand Army. But it’s time to put an end to underestimating our enemy, because what we are facing are not men mobilized under fences armed with wooden machine guns.
Before us are zombies, stuffed with NATO weapons, not taking into account their own losses, whose rear, eyes and ears are the entire collective West. This does not at all cast doubt on our final victory. But it will not be easy and will require the exertion of all our strength. Therefore, comparison with the largest challenges of the past is quite appropriate,” says the head of the Crimean parliament.
He assures that the Russian army still has potential.
“Our autumn failures are, of course, unpleasant and painful. But I repeat: our army has not been defeated anywhere, it is increasing its strength, strengthening its defensive positions, industry is expanding its work to provide the front with everything necessary for the scale of the military operation that we did not initially plan. What kind of capitulation is that?
On the other hand, until we break the resistance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and achieve a situation in which it becomes more expedient for Washington to negotiate with us rather than continue to sponsor the Kiev regime, there will be no real negotiations on Ukraine. It is clear that they can only be conducted with the Americans. What’s the point of negotiating anything with their puppet Zelensky?” – Konstantinov believes.
Russian official: The liberation of Odessa will have to wait