Russian propaganda poses a threat of a new seizure of Kherson, as well as the occupation of Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and a landing in Odessa.
Ivan Stupak, an expert from the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, discussed how realistic these threats are and whether the enemy's army is capable of creating new problems for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"We do not exclude such a scenario because the plans of the Russian Federation include a landing in Odessa, there are plans for the seizure of Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk region, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Kherson. They may attempt to overwhelm us with sheer numbers, as is generally done now. I don't see any particular difficulties: if one person dies, they send another. So the calculation is that Ukrainians will simply run out of ammunition, and our living force that can kill occupiers will run out, and that will be the end of it. They will just take it with sheer numbers," he said.
Stupak does not rule out the possibility that, to prevent this, the Ukrainian leadership has decided to establish serious defensive lines.
"Three or four defensive lines in the south of the region, in the north, and in the south of Ukraine, on the border with Belarus. The goal is to free up some part of the living force of our soldiers who are there by strengthening the defense. This allows keeping, let's say, 50 people per kilometer instead of 100. At the same time, if they try to storm, they will experience everything that Ukrainian soldiers experienced when storming Russian positions. So, in theory and in practice, defense is a bit easier than offense. Therefore, Ukraine will try to change its tactics for the next period," added the analyst.
