‘We will not give up territories’: Selinsky angry at US criticism of Ukrainian tactics

We will not give up territory.
Selinsky is angry at US criticism of Ukrainian tactics

08/23/2023 at 9:24 PM

US officials criticized the deployment of Ukrainian forces to repel the Russian invaders. And they demand a stronger focus on the south of the country. President Zelensky strongly rejects this and defends his tactics. Otherwise, the attackers will seize the opportunity.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected foreign criticism over the alleged misallocation of the army to repel the Russian invasion. “Does an expert know how many people and how many occupiers are in the east? About 200,000!” Zelensky told a news conference in Kiev.

The Russian army expects to neglect Ukraine in protecting some sectors of the front. Then the Russians will advance immediately to the east. The president continued, “We will not give up Kharkiv, Donbass, Pavlohrad or Dnipro. And that’s a good thing.”

He was responding to a report in the New York Times. In the report, unnamed US and other military experts expressed the view that Ukraine is not concentrating enough units in the south. For this reason, the hoped-for advance to the Sea of ​​Azov was halted. They advised Kyiv to change tactics.

USA: Russian supplies must be cut off

US officials told the newspaper that the main aim of the counterattack is to cut off Russian supply lines in southern Ukraine by severing the land bridge between Russia and occupied Crimea. But instead of focusing on this, the Ukrainian High Command would have divided forces and firepower equally between east and south.

In a video conference on August 10, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley suggested to Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Salochny to focus on one front during the counteroffensive. According to the report, Zaluschny agreed to the proposal. The sources said there were already signs that Ukraine had started moving some of its more experienced units from the east to the south. However, these forces had already suffered heavy losses and were weakened.

The length of the current front in eastern and southern Ukraine is about 800 km. In addition, the Ukrainian army has to defend other border sections with Russia, for example near Kharkiv and Sumy, and guard the long border with Belarus.