Adviser to the head of Zelensky's office, Mikhail Podolyak, announced Ukraine's plans to destroy the Crimean Bridge
Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of President Vladimir Zelensky, said in an interview with The Guardian that Ukraine considers the Crimean Bridge connecting the peninsula with the Russian mainland as a "legitimate military target." He also promised that the AFU would create "chaos within the Russian forces" by striking supply lines.
Upcoming attacks
Mikhail Podolyak "made it clear" to The Guardian journalists that Ukraine intends to destroy the Crimean Bridge.
"This is illegal construction and the main gate for the supply of the Russian army in the Crimea. Such objects should be destroyed," said the adviser to the head of Zelensky's office.
According to him, Ukraine is "conducting a counteroffensive" aimed at creating "chaos within the Russian forces." The APU strikes the supply lines of the Russian army. Podolyak said that "in the next two to three months" there may be new attacks, "similar to the mysterious explosions on Tuesday at a railway junction and an airbase in Crimea," as well as explosions "at the Saki airfield on the peninsula last week."
The publication notes that "Ukraine has not taken responsibility" for these incidents in Crimea.
"Our strategy is to destroy logistics, supply lines, ammunition depots and other military infrastructure facilities. This creates chaos in the Russian forces," Podolyak said.
He is sure that this approach of Kiev prevents Moscow from using artillery power "to conquer territory in the Donbass," as was the case "with Mariupol and Severodonetsk," when the cities were "destroyed."
"Thus, Russia has kind of taught everyone that a counteroffensive requires a huge amount of manpower, like a giant fist, and you need to move only in one direction," the adviser to the head of Zelensky's office believes.
At the same time, he noted that "the Ukrainian counteroffensive looks completely different," since the Ukrainian Armed Forces "do not use the tactics of the 60s and 70s of the last century."
"However, these remarks can also be interpreted as recognition that Ukraine is struggling to accumulate the number of people and military equipment needed to conduct a full counteroffensive in the south of the country, which usually requires the superiority of three or more soldiers against one," The Guardian journalists explained.
According to the publication, instead, Ukraine "tried to cut off Kherson, the only city held by Russia on the western bank of the Dnieper, damaging road and railway bridges with the help of recently delivered Western rocket artillery." Kiev expects that thanks to these attacks, "Russia can no longer replenish its reserves and forces effectively."
The need for MLRS
Podolyak also told the publication that Ukraine had requested "more 50 - 60 - 80 " multiple rocket launchers in addition to the existing arsenal of about 20 units. 16 of them are HIMARS supplied by the United States. Three more MLRS are tracked M270s that arrived from the UK.
The adviser to the head of Zelensky's office added that with the help of long-range missiles supplied by the West, Ukraine hopes to weaken the forces of the Russian military, to make sure that they "have no supplies and there is a shortage of ammunition." According to Podolyak, this "will force the Russians to fight the way they did in the first months of the war."
He also "suggested" that the "attack on the airbase" in Crimea last week "could have been the work of partisans," but "rejected any suggestion that it could have been an accident."
"Of course, I agree with the Russian Defense Ministry, which predicts more such incidents in the next two to three months. I think we could see more such cases," Podolyak said.
On August 9, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that ammunition exploded at an airfield near Novofedorovka in Crimea.
"According to the report from the site, there was no fire impact on the collapsed ammunition storage area at the airfield," the report said.
The day before, the defense ministry said that the detonation of ammunition at a military warehouse in the Dzhankoy district of Crimea occurred due to sabotage. Because of it, power lines, power plants, railway tracks and residential buildings were damaged.
Maria Shustrova
