Podolyak: “Let’s wear down Russians at Bakhmut in view of the counter-offensive”
Russia has changed tactics by converging on Bakhmut much of its trained military personnel, “the remnants of his professional army, as well as the most capable private companies” such as the Wagner Group and units of the ‘Zeki’, the mobilized prisoners from prisons. “It is crucial for them to advance in this direction. We, therefore, have two objectives: to reduce their capable personnel as much as possible, and to lock them down in a few key battles of exhaustion, to disrupt their offensive and to concentrate our resources elsewhere, for the counter-offensive So, today Bakhmut is completely effective, even superior to his key tasks”. This was stated in an interview with La Stampa by the adviser to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak.
“Moscow loses 5-7 times more soldiers than us, they count about 40,000 dead and wounded in seven months in Bakhmut. Precisely on this operation there is strategic disagreement between the leader Wagner Prigozhin and Putin’s general Gerasimov, to whom Defense Minister Shoigu joined,” Podolyak continued.
Zelensky’s advisor then reiterated that today “there is no” option for negotiations, “simply because Russia is carrying out a brutal aggression, with war crimes and crimes against humanity”. In Italy, he added, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni understood “the nature of the conflict” and that “flirting with the Russian Federation is extremely dangerous. Persons like Berlusconi or Salvini demonstrate absolute short-sightedness and do not make speeches like statesmen: strategically supporting Russia means support an outsider and a historical loser. Not business, but crimes and authoritarianism. What goes against freedom, democracy, which Italy is used to. It’s a dark historical stain on oneself. I don’t think so that Italy needs it”.