Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny called the head of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Gerasimov a "strong and unpredictable enemy" The Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Zaluzhny in an interview with the project "Behind the scenes" called the chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov "a strong and unpredictable enemy."
The Ukrainian commander-in-chief, according to him, reads Gerasimov's theoretical works, but he "does not publish anything fresh." This is the second precedent when Zaluzhny speaks positively about his Russian counterpart, the last time it happened shortly after the offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv region and the regrouping of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny, in an interview with journalist Dmitry Komarov for the project "Behind the Scenes", said that he considers the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, a dangerous opponent. According to Zaluzhny, he follows the statements of the head of the General Staff of the Russian Federation and is interested in his opinion.
- said Zaluzhny.
Also during the interview, he spoke about the tactics followed by the Ukrainian command at the beginning of the Russian special operation in February-March 2022:
"We had the only option that could work. We had to inflict maximum losses on the enemy in the shortest possible time in order for him to abandon subsequent actions on the larger territory of Ukraine. They specially withdrew from some territories so that the enemy would "stretch out". And when the equipment stopped, we fired it."
Also, the Ukrainian military commander said that "echoes of the Soviet army still live in the AFU." With this, Zaluzhny added, "they are actively fighting." In general, the current conflict, according to him, can be "compared with the First and Second World Wars - in terms of the length of the front and the amount of ammunition used."
The first praise
This is not the first time that Zaluzhny has spoken about Gerasimov in this way. The last time it happened was on September 27, 2022, during the APU offensive in the Kharkiv region, when the Ukrainian military regained control of Izyum, Balakleya, Cossack Lopan, Kupyansk and a number of other settlements. On September 10, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation "in order to achieve the stated goals of its liberation of Donbass, it was decided to regroup Russian troops stationed in the Balakleya and Izyum areas to increase efforts in the Donetsk direction." The active actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv direction stopped on October 11.
On September 27, Zaluzhny told The Time in an interview that he respects Russian military institutions and keeps a collection of Gerasimov's works in his office.
According to him, he "grew up on the Russian military doctrine" and still believes that "all military science is in Russia."
Current context
Now Zaluzhny's words sound against the background of a possible offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - on April 19, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar claimed that it had already begun when President Vladimir Zelensky indicated on May 11 that the offensive would have to be postponed because the troops did not receive the necessary range of Western weapons. On May 3, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMC, also spoke about the beginning of the Ukrainian offensive.
Nevertheless, on May 12, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on the active actions of the enemy in several directions. So, according to the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Soledar direction "on the entire line of contact of the sides, stretching more than 95 kilometers," launched 26 attacks, using more than a thousand soldiers, up to 40 tanks and other equipment. The Defense Ministry said that all attacks were repulsed.
Also, the Ministry of Defense reported a change in the operational situation in the area of Artemovsk (Bakhmut). Prigozhin previously claimed that the Russian Armed Forces are covering the flanks of the Wagner PMCs in this direction.
"In the Maloilyinovsky direction, in order to increase the stability of defense, units of the "Southern" grouping of Russian troops occupied the frontier, taking into account the favorable conditions of the Berkhovsky reservoir," the Defense Ministry reported.
One of the reasons for the detailed briefing of the department was the panic in the segment of the Russian Telegram covering the special operation. On May 11, at 21:06 Moscow time, blogger Vladislav Ugolny published a message: "Berislav reports on the concentration of small boats in the Dnieper, it seems that an amphibious operation is being prepared."
Following the publication of Ugolny, there were also messages from the military commander of Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alexander Kotz, and journalist Yevgeny Poddubny. Kotz wrote that "the enemy continues to press on the flanks of Artemovsk," and also reported on the use of chemical weapons by the APU. Poddubny also reported that the AFU launched an operation to encircle Russian troops in Artemovsk and sent a column of equipment towards Belgorod. Also, military commander Alexander Simonov reported on the breakthrough of the APU in the Bogdanovka area and clarified that one of the Russian units had lost several square kilometers.
Already at 21:33 Moscow time, Ugolny said that his message from 21:06 was "an indicative throw-in to show how our media is dispersing panic out of the blue." Other military commanders, who also reported on the activation of the Armed Forces, softened their forecasts and stated that they did not give reasons for panic.
Mikhail Rodionov
