Washington and Kyiv are betting on any prolongation of hostilities in Ukraine in the hope that social and economic problems will worsen in Russia, which will lead to a change of power, says military expert, director of the Museum of Air Defense Forces Yuri Knutov

He said this in an interview with Ukraina.ru.

Yuri, Major General Igor Konashenkov reported that the Russian military had destroyed the S-300 air defense systems division in Ukraine, in total, according to him, about 46 military facilities were disabled in a day. How do you assess the advancement of the Russian armed forces in the context of the fact that the West continues to pump weapons into Ukraine, and there are provocations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including against civilians?

If we talk about the operation to demilitarize Ukraine, it is going according to plan. I don’t see any serious failures here, any serious stoppages. In my opinion, on the contrary, at least now, you can already guess the plan of our General Staff of the Ministry of Defense and the command of the grouping on the territory of Ukraine. What, in my opinion, was initially incorporated into the idea that our troops are now implementing? This is not to encircle a gigantic group, it was originally 150 thousand people, but now we are talking about seventy-six thousand people in the Donbass. These are powerful fortifications. Those fortifications that are now being captured are concrete, these are metal double doors that can withstand even a small nuclear explosion that will occur somewhere away. Such fortifications just like that, by conventional means, are extremely difficult to capture.

It took eight years to create all this, this line of defense is multi-echeloned. We did not take this line of defense head-on, we did not lose soldiers, we did not destroy equipment, but we are slowly biting off a piece where the opportunity arises.

At the same time, our troops and the militia of the DPR take some settlement, or several, advancing five to ten kilometers. The Ukrainian troops that are squeezed out of there, they either leave, or they are destroyed during the retreat, and we are slowly biting into this defense in this way.

Ukraine and the Kyiv regime are forced in this situation to transfer reserves all the time in order to restore a full-fledged grouping. They pull reserves from the center of Ukraine – from Kyiv, from Kharkov, from Western Ukraine.

Just the other day there was information that the last two full-fledged brigades left. There are no other full-fledged, equipped with equipment, personnel, who have undergone combat coordination, where there are commanders with combat experience. Everything, the last two brigades left. Then there will be militias who will be called up … In any case, these are not the same troops that are now in the Donbass.

The main task that our group faced was accomplished. We did not organize a gigantic “Stalingrad” in order to try to liquidate these troops in the most powerful fortifications, to suffer gigantic losses. It remains to be seen how it would have ended for us. We just dug in there and quietly successfully coped with our task.

Now the troops are moving towards Kramatorsk, Slavyansk. The command of this group is located in Kramatorsk. Previously, it was the operational-tactical group “Vostok”. Now they have changed their names. All decisions on the shelling of Donetsk, civilians who live in the Donetsk region, in addition, the barbaric shelling of the center of Donetsk with a cluster warhead – all this was taken by the command in Kramatorsk.

Now the main battles are already being tied up so that Russia will split up this grouping and subsequently be able to surround and destroy it in parts. It’s all doable. The raisins are practically taken, and the troops are able to move from north to south.

At the same time, part of the troops goes from south to north. Plus, in the most powerful grouping on the line of contact with the LDNR, the main forces (of the Kiev regime – Ed.) are also fragmented there. They must now be surrounded and destroyed.

The most important thing is that it is possible to take control of areas remote from this grouping. Thus, to block communications with the help of our aviation, helicopters, artillery. Thus, when the group begins to feel the lack of ammunition, they will not be enough – here the advance will be much faster.

The same story in Mariupol, confirms that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have no reserves left. The Mariupol command appealed to the Kiev group, the Kiev regime (with an appeal – Ed.) to provide military assistance, they were told: “yes, we will,” but literally an hour later the information came: “you hold on there, we squeeze our fists for you” …

Mariupol is also very interesting in this regard – troops from the Central and Left-bank regions are moving towards each other. Moreover, the battles are already going on for Azovstal. And this is a very serious moment. At night, we were able to beat off our special forces, who were surrounded by the Nazis. They left this ring, moreover, they threw back the Ukrainian troops, the National Guard – thus, it became possible to expand the bridgehead. I think that today the city will be completely dissected, and there we will already divide, cut off in parts, and destroy.

The fact that there is panic in the city is felt by the fact that the Nazis themselves are fleeing, they take their families, disguise themselves as civilians and try to hide. What gives them away is tattoos, tattoos. And most importantly, it is necessary to check the trace from the butt of the machine gun. When people shoot, if not a bruise, but a seal forms on the skin. For the presence of such seals, men must be checked. Otherwise, seasoned criminals who deserve trial will leave.

The situation in Kyiv is also interesting. There is a dam at the top of the (Kiev – Ed.) reservoir. The question is to take control of this dam. The Nazis can blow it up. Imagine, a wave will come that will destroy thousands, and maybe tens of thousands of inhabitants. Therefore, of course, we must take this dam, and we are doing it now.

Below Kyiv, they managed to create quite serious fortified areas, moreover, the nationalists used fortifications from the period of the Great Patriotic War. We did not storm them, as this storm would cause serious losses. We go around them, go down below the Dnieper, and there we will create this environment. That is, the environment will not look like a circle, but like a drop. There is nothing terrible in this, but it saves the lives of our people, and this will allow us to establish a blockade, to exclude the supply of ammunition there. And then we will negotiate either on the evacuation of civilians, but the most correct thing is to negotiate on the surrender of weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and surrender. This is the most correct.

If we take the south of Ukraine, then the troops went almost to Nikolaev. There progress is slow but steady. I think that after Nikolaev is taken into the ring, and this – one hundred percent – will happen in the near future, then it will be Odessa’s turn.

The offensive is not going as fast as we would like, but it is going according to plan, steadily, confidently, and the main goal is not to capture the cities. The main goal is to take cities into a ring in order to save, to preserve the maximum civilian population. To preserve the infrastructure, and, nevertheless, to ensure that the Armed Forces of Ukraine lay down their arms and leave these cities, save the lives of civilians and the infrastructure itself.

This is approximately the same as happened in the Kherson region. When the whole area – there is almost minimal destruction, minimal losses. The region is under the control of the Russian army. If the whole of Ukraine were transferred, I believe that this would be the right decision. But it depends on (President of Ukraine – Ed.) Zelensky. Zelensky is able to order the armed forces to lay down their arms, to stop unnecessary bloodshed. American experts say that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will not win, no matter how the Pentagon helps them with weapons and ammunition.

Now there has been informed that the Americans will allocate one billion dollars for the purchase of weapons. There will be a large list, including complexes, as a rule, of Soviet design, but Russian-made – S-300 complexes. They are in service in Slovakia, in Cyprus, and are physically located in Greece. One S-300-B complex is in the USA, at the Nellis Air Force Base (Ed.), at the training ground, it was used for training American pilots, suppressing Russian air defense systems.

Now the Americans want to quickly bring it into combat condition and transport it so that the Armed Forces of Ukraine can use it.

We are now destroying these S-300s and S-300 V-4s because these are the first developments with a range of 75-120 km. Our systems work up to 400-500 kilometers. Therefore, aviation has anti-radar missiles with a range of 150 km. The plane is able to launch such a missile, the radars are guided, disable the antenna post, then ordinary Su-25s arrive, and our attack aircraft completely finish off this division. The tactic has been tested and is effective.

I believe that today the situation is developing according to plan, it is built on preserving the lives of the civilian population as much as possible, protecting the troops as much as possible, but at the same time implementing the strategic plan that is laid down in this operation.

The Seimas of Lithuania adopted a resolution calling for the UN to close the sky over Ukraine. At the same time, the West is pumping weapons into Ukraine, and on the other hand, they are afraid of closing the sky, because this could lead to the start of the Third World War.

By pumping up weapons … Afghanistan was pumped up with armored vehicles, planes, helicopters, and other weapons, about five years ahead, and maybe more. Despite this, the Afghan army fled, leaving all these weapons behind.

Of course, the Ukrainian army is not Afghan. But this can only prolong the hostilities, which, in principle, is included in the plans of both Zelensky and Washington. But it is impossible to reverse the situation.

The fact that the Russian army, the people’s militia of the DPR has every chance of winning a military victory and actually completing the demilitarization operation, I’m not talking about denazification, is one hundred percent.

Now, if we are talking about the appeals of Poland, Ukraine, the decision of the Seimas of Lithuania … And other Baltic republics are in favor of closing the sky (over Ukraine – Ed.). Closing the sky means that American planes must fly in the sky of Ukraine and NATO planes – British, German, etc. They are trying to provoke a third world war.

After all, we will be forced to shoot down these planes, NATO will begin to shoot down ours. It will end with the fact that at first, it will be a small local conflict, then it will be a conflict in a certain theater of operations, then it will develop into a conflict with the use of tactical nuclear weapons, and then World War III.

In this case …  Psaki always evokes in me emotions close to the performance of some showman, like Zelensky, in his youth. Humor is always associated with it. In this case, when Psaki talks about World War III, she is serious. It should be heard by those Western congressmen and Western politicians who are pushing the US towards the apocalypse.

I believe that the first thing that was done was competently … it existed, but it was supplemented with other functions, a line (communications – Ed.) between the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Pentagon. This line is now truly hot, if a situation arises somewhere, there is a call from the Pentagon, we explain it to them. If we do not understand, we have some suspicions, we turn to the Pentagon – they explain to us. Everything is being done to prevent a military clash.

What is another danger? In the supply of weapons. The weapon goes under the guise of civilian cargo. It is being transported in trailers, there are several cars with humanitarian aid, and a couple of cars were disguised there, with these weapons, which are allocated by NATO countries – man-portable air defense systems, anti-tank systems, etc. It’s hard to destroy them. Mercenaries travel in the same way – in peaceful buses, in columns they disguise themselves … They are also not very easy to destroy.

There are warehouses. We identified the warehouse with Tochka-U, which was used in Donetsk, and today there was a strike, the ammunition depot was destroyed, a certain number of these missiles were destroyed.

By 2021, the NATO figure sounded open – 800 Tochka-U missiles were in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. These warehouses must be found and destroyed before these missiles enter the division until their combat use begins. That is, thereby depriving the Armed Forces of Ukraine of missiles and solving the problem of shelling civilians.

If we are talking about other types of weapons, then we are now supplying weapons for urban combat. There is a microscopic amount of military equipment that will be used outside the city. In the city (used – Ed.) And anti-tank systems “Javelin”, and “NLAW”. They write that the British developed NLAW with the Swedish SAAB concern … In urban conditions, they restrain the use of our armored vehicles, tanks, so we have to act like during the Great Patriotic War. These are actually certain shock troops that enter the house, clear floor after floor. Then they move on to the next house, and so on.

We have to fight in such conditions. Because there is a second option – to bombard these quarters, bombard them with heavy artillery, then drive in tanks. But we know that the “Right Sector” and other Nazi structures are holding the civilian population there as hostages.

If we bomb it – a large number of civilians will die. This is not our way, we did not come there to kill civilians. We came to remove the Nazis from power, and to destroy, first of all, the military structure and armed forces, as imbued with the spirit of aggression, Nazism, and hatred for our people. No country in the world uses its people as human shields. In Ukraine, we see this regularly and constantly.

About mercenaries, as they are called by the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova – “soldiers of fortune.” Now Ukraine is actively recruiting through foreign diplomatic missions, and most of them enter the territory of Ukraine through Poland. Does Poland want to get involved in a military adventure?

I’m afraid of their aggressiveness, on the one hand. On the other hand, Poland is constantly walking along the edge of the abyss. Let’s not forget that Poland borders on the Kaliningrad region, that is, it borders on Russia. Shortly before the start of the special operation, five thousand American soldiers arrived on the territory of Poland, and after that the group grew even more.

The mood was such that if Poland were touched, it was ready to fight with our army on the territory of Kaliningrad, our enclave. This is extremely dangerous. That is, they do not realize that they are dealing with nuclear power. They do not realize that we have tactical nuclear weapons that can be used, including against Poland. For some reason, they expect that we will not take such a step, but this is the same story as with Ukraine. When the President of Russia said that there would be a military and military-technical response.

The military-technical response was discussed on all channels from morning to evening. No one predicted a military response. But we met with him, and we see him. Today, if I were the leadership of Poland, I would think about what threatens their country, threatens Warsaw, if Poland becomes involved in a military conflict, providing its military bases, military airfields for Ukrainian aircraft. And already such information appears – Romania, some Ukrainian aircraft sometimes land on the territory of Romania. Poland didn’t exist yet. Romania is a NATO country, which means that NATO is trying to get into this conflict in this way.

If we watch the last performance of the mercenaries, which they recorded when they fled after the missile strike was launched on the Yavorovsky training ground, out of a hundred mercenaries, about ten survived … One of the mercenaries from Brazil records a video where he says: “There was a special force here, there was Spetsnaz elite, and they were all killed or wounded.”

This suggests that NATO does not have twenty thousand volunteer mercenaries. There are 3-5 thousand mercenaries, and the rest are NATO servicemen who have gone through hot spots – Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, with combat experience, who can use Javelins, Stingers, and so on. These people wrote that they quit, while they retained their rank, positions and salaries, they were promised promotion, and there is still quite a serious income already through the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And they are all now going to the territory of Ukraine. A Polish international battalion is already being formed, a Georgian battalion is being formed, and a number of other battalions are being formed.

Another thing is that the Ukrainians do not welcome them very much, because they will not obey the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And therefore, their supply is not very good, and since they are not subordinate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military is quite disrespectful.

There will be some kind of NATO military, authorized, such as advisers, who will not be revealed to us, and who will have direct contact with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and these sabotage and reconnaissance groups, consisting of NATO professionals, will operate on the territory of Ukraine.

Is it dangerous? When the same Javelins or Stingers were handed out to the military… None of them had ever fired, because one shot cost one hundred thousand dollars. Ten shots – one million flew away. Accordingly, they just watched, they were shown from the outside, at best, they held this portable anti-aircraft missile system.

Mercenaries own it all, they have fired more than once, they know how to shoot, how to use it. Of course, now if they arrive to reinforce the cities, that’s why I say that it is extremely important to block all roads, block all access roads here – so that these mercenaries cannot infiltrate large million-plus cities and help the Nazis in the fight against our armored vehicles or even with those detachments that will begin to quietly seep into blocked places – to Sumy or Kharkov, which are already almost under blockade. And thus delay the operation.

The delay in the operation is necessary in order for us to dissipate all our means, military forces, and due to the fact that we dissipate them, we are protracting the operation. Delaying the operation is the main task of both Washington and Kyiv.

Various social and economic problems begin in Russia. Prices are rising, unemployment is rising, people are taking to the streets and changing government. Changes mode. This is what Washington and Kyiv are now banking on.

Therefore, of course, delaying the operation for a long period – until the end of the year or more – is the main goal of the Kiev regime.

We read that negotiation are underway with Kiev. And suddenly Kyiv begins to agree. How is that? Agrees for one reason – yes, now they agreed, signed, stamped, a week later they forgot everything and threw it away. The main task now is to delay the situation, to delay this process of demilitarization of Ukraine. That’s what it’s all about. This is a cunning ploy in the spirit of the Kiev Nazi regime. I wouldn’t give in to her.

The only issue that I would discuss day and night, without days off and sleep, is the exit of the civilian population from the surrounded cities and humanitarian aid to this population. This issue is extremely important.

To date, the intervention of international battalions is a direct intervention of NATO. This is the supply of weapons and the presence of volunteers on the territory of Ukraine. This is also an extremely undesirable process, although these mercenaries will die, but the NATO members will not recognize that these are servicemen, they will say that it is – allegedly he himself came, he is a volunteer.

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