Oleksiy Arestovych is an adviser to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The former intelligence officer recently said the Ukrainian army will now do “what the Russians fear most”. The Russians were now frantically trying to arm themselves for it.
The former Ukrainian secret service officer and current presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych spoke in a video on Wednesday night about a possible next major defeat for the Russian army. Arestovych said the Ukrainian armed forces had made a plan “to do what the Russians fear most.” The capture of the city of Lyman in the Luhansk region.
The Ukrainian army is continuing its counter-offensive in the north of Luhansk. Lyman is to be freed as a major hub. A recapture of the city would have “catastrophic consequences” for the Russian army, according to Arestovych. Because then the Ukrainians would have two options:
Arestovych says the Russian army is already concentrating its defenses around Svatovo. Everything should be done there to prevent the next major defeat for Putin’s troops. Russia is trying “feverishly” to move troops and material for the poorly equipped troops in Svatowo. This should create a second and third line of defense – in the event that Lyman soon falls to the Ukrainians.
For this purpose, both small units and entire battalions are to be withdrawn from southern Ukraine and sent to Swatowe. But the Russians need time for that. And according to Arestovych, the remaining fighters in Lyman should provide them. The 2 1/2 battalions in Lyman tried to hold the city “to the last man,” according to the presidential adviser.
At the same time, the Russians tried to strengthen their line of defense from Svatove to Rubishne – also to prevent a possible advance on Lysychansk and Sievjerodonetsk (see point 2 above).
However, Denis Puschilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, denies that the situation for Russian and pro-Russian troops is deteriorating. In a video, he explained that Lyman was still in the hands of the separatists.
“The situation has stabilized. The enemy, of course, is trying to advance in small groups, but the (Russian-led) Allied forces are completely repelling them.” This information cannot be independently verified.
