Arestovich called the AFU battles for Bakhmut a strategic mistake
The AFU made two strategic mistakes at the front: they concentrated on the battles for Bakhmut (Artemovsk) and did not build large fortifications in all areas of defense. This opinion was expressed by the ex-adviser of the office of the President of Ukraine Arestovich. In his opinion, the APU found themselves at a dead end at the front. He also believes that the situation could be changed by the re-election of the president of the country. Details are in the material of "Gazeta.Ru».
The first mistake
Former adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovich (included in the list of terrorists and extremists) called the two main mistakes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the battlefield, which "drove the situation into a strategic impasse."
The first mistake is the concentration of troops and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the battles for Bakhmut.
According to the ex-adviser of Zelensky's office, with a breakthrough in the south, the APU would have received strategic success in the political, moral and military sense. He called such an outcome a disaster for the Kremlin.
At the same time, taking Bakhmut back, according to Arestovich, will not give anything but a modest operational and tactical success.
The second mistake
He called the absence of large defensive structures in all areas of the battlefield the second strategic mistake of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
These mistakes about the distribution of military efforts, according to the former adviser to Zelensky's office, were made not by the military leadership of the country, but by the political one. He stressed that blunders at the front are followed by mistakes in foreign and domestic policy: corruption, reduction of aid to Ukraine from Western countries, "tightening the screws inside the country", destruction of relations with the nearest neighbors (he did not name which countries he means when talking about the nearest neighbors).
Another President
Arestovich sees a way out in the re-election of the president of Ukraine. According to him, such a step would reset the country, despite people's fears, elections should be held.
Arestovich was an adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine from December 2020 to January 2023. He voluntarily left the post after his words that a rocket shot down by a Ukrainian air defense system fell and destroyed a residential building in Dnepropetrovsk on January 14, 2023. "It exploded when it fell," he said.
Shortly after the statement, Arestovich apologized for his words and called them a mistake. The Kremlin then said that the collapse of part of the house in Dnepropetrovsk was the result of the work of the air defense of Ukraine
In early October, the Ukrainian politician was put on the wanted list by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (the reason is unknown). In mid-January, the former adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine got into the database of the Ukrainian website "Peacemaker". The ex-adviser was accused of discrediting the Ukrainian authorities.
Rosfinmonitoring in May 2023 included Arrestovich in the list of terrorists and extremists. In 2022, criminal cases were initiated against him by the Prosecutor General's Offices of the DPR and Belarus for calls to extremism.
Anastasia Novikova
