1/ Pokrovsk and Kupyansk are falsely being portrayed by the Russian media as decisive imminent victories, says Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin. He warns that Russsia is failing to make progress on the Zaporizhzhia front, which he describes as the decisive theatre of the Ukraine war. ⬇️
2/ Writing from the jail where he has been imprisoned since last year on charges of inciting extremism, Girkin dismisses the increasingly bloody battles for Pokrovsk and Kupiansk – which have cost thousands of Russian lives – as irrelevant to the war's main objectives:
3/ "The tactical successes in Kupyansk and Pokrovsk, which give hope for the rapid liberation of these two cities (the Kharkiv and Donetsk axes), are being presented to our press as some kind of decisive victories.
4/ "I must emphasize once again that both of these successes were achieved in secondary axes of the Special Military Operation.
5/ "The Kupyansk axe is the Kharkiv Oblast, which we no longer lay claim to and which, as far as I understand, is not even included in our territorial exchange plans. Moreover, it leads us deep into enemy territory in a direct westward direction.
6/ "And Pokrovsk, which, in principle, plays no significant role without the capture of the entire Slovyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration. Otherwise, the Donbas will not be liberated.
7/ "Pokrovsk is a salient in the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defences; taking it will only straighten their line of defence. Taking both of these points won't lead to the final collapse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' front, their defeat and rout—which is what we should strive for.
8/ "At the same time, fierce fighting on the Zaporizhzhia Front isn't leading to any significant advances precisely because the enemy understands that this is the decisive front.
9/ "And it is here, if they are defeated and the front line is seriously pushed back, it will threaten their entire eastern group in the Donbas and in the Zaporizhzhia region to the east. There, the enemy is fighting fiercely.
10/ "We must understand that no tactical points, no advances of 10, 50, or even 100 kilometers will lead us to victory without defeating the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
11/ "We can take line after line, settlement after settlement, village after village, and even city after city (although the pace at which we are taking them is not impressive). If we don't set ourselves the goal of strategic victory, we will never achieve it.
12/ "Achieving a strategic victory without devoting all of the state's resources is impossible. The enemy understands this perfectly well and is straining all their forces. We, however, continue to pretend we're not fighting, but rather "conducting a special operation."
13/ "Therefore, my prognosis is as follows: After the liberation of Kupyansk and Pokrovsk, the situation will, unfortunately, not fundamentally change. Tactical successes will not lead to the collapse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' front." /end Source: https://t.me/strelkovii/7230
@ChrisO_wiki Girkin being Girkin.