Military expert, retired colonel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and former spokesperson of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 2014 to 2017, Vladyslav Seleznev, answered the question about Russia's goal in concentrating a large number of troops on the Liman-Kupyansk direction during natioanl telethon.
"In the expert community, this process is referred to as the 'Great Gerasimov Offensive.' The enemy pursues several goals. Firstly, by doing so, they aim to divert a significant number of Ukrainian reserves from other fronts. Secondly, depending on the success or failure of the enemy's actions, the following will become evident: if the enemy can shift Ukrainian forces and assets towards the Oskol River, they will gain territorial achievements in the Kharkiv region. We remember that Putin often declares his readiness for a negotiation track with Ukraine, but given the situation on the ground," Seleznev stated.
According to the expert, Russian President Vladimir Putin still dreams that the Ukrainian government and people will succumb to his ultimatum demands.
"The third task is that the enemy, in this way, tries to create the groundwork, through the so-called future battlefield, for the implementation of that very first plan with which Putin began full-scale aggression against sovereign Ukraine. I mean the complete occupation of the entire territory of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions," emphasized Seleznev.
He added that Russia has a whole complex of plans. However, whether the occupiers will be able to implement them depends on the resistance and preparedness of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
Seleznev notes that often due to the delayed response from the West to the requests of the Ukrainian military, time was lost when the enemy was creating a powerful network of field defensive structures.
"Even in these turbulent days, when the enemy resists and actively opposes, preventing our defense forces from advancing in the south of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the same time, Russian engineering units continue to restore new and new lines of defense, mine the territory to significantly slow down the Ukrainian advance towards the Azov Sea," Seleznev said
