Mykhailo Podolyak told the Guardian there could be more attacks in the “next two or three months” similar to Tuesday’s mysterious strikes on a railway crossing and an air base in Crimea, as well as last week’s strike on Russian warplanes at Saky airport of the peninsula. Russia said a fire on Tuesday triggered explosions at an ammunition depot in Crimea’s Dzhankoi region — an incident Podolyak called a “reminder” that “Russian-held Crimea is about warehouse explosions and a high risk of death for intruders and thieves.” Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks. They have prompted Russian tourists to flee Crimea in panic. Queues formed outside the train station in the regional capital Simferopol on Tuesday. The defense ministry in Moscow said it was dealing with cases of sabotage and was taking “necessary measures” to prevent further incidents. Footage purported to show an explosion at an ammunition depot in Crimea – video Speaking from the presidential offices in Kyiv, Podolyak said: “Our strategy is to destroy logistics, supply lines and ammunition depots and other items of military infrastructure. It creates chaos within their own forces.” The adviser, often described as the country’s third most powerful figure, said Kiev’s approach contrasted with Moscow’s use of blunt artillery power to gain ground in the Donbass region in the east, which has seen Russian troops to destroy cities like Mariupol and Severodonetsk. to gain ground. “So Russia has kind of taught everybody that a counterattack takes massive amounts of manpower like a giant fist and it just goes in one direction,” he said, but “a Ukrainian counterattack looks very different. We don’t use the tactics of the 60s and 70s, of the last century.” An infrared overview of Saky Air Base after the attack. Photo: Maxar Technologies/Reuters But the remarks could also be interpreted as an acknowledgment that Ukraine is struggling to muster the amount of men and military hardware needed to support a full-scale counteroffensive in the country’s south, which typically requires three soldiers to outnumber one or more. Instead, Ukraine has sought to cut off Kherson – the only Russian-held city on the west bank of the Dnieper River – by destroying road and rail bridges using newly procured Western rocket artillery to the point where it is no longer possible for Russia to resupply its forces Efficiently. Podolyak called for “50, 60, 80 more” MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) on top of an existing arsenal of about 20, 16 of which are US-supplied Himars trucks. Three – the M270 wheeled vehicles – also came from the UK with another three promising, which the consultant described as “very good”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. British soldiers with an M270 system during a military exercise in Germany last month. Photo: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images Aided by long-range missiles supplied by the West, Podolyak added that Ukraine hoped to degrade the invaders’ strength through a “lack of supplies and a lack of ammunition” that would “make the Russians fight like they did in the first months of the war ». . In the early phase of the conflict, a disorganized Russian army failed to capture Kyiv after the invading forces became stuck in a series of traffic jams on the roads leading into the city, leaving them vulnerable to Ukrainian infantry and anti-tank weapons. The president’s aide suggested that last week’s attack on the air base could have been the work of insurgents, but playfully dismissed any suggestion that it could have been an accident, as suggested by Moscow soon after. Podolyak said the Russians had “different physics” if they believed the explosions were caused by discarded cigarettes causing ammunition dumps to explode, before repeating such attacks behind the lines in the future. “I certainly agree with the Russian Ministry of Defense, which predicts more incidents of this kind in the next two, three months. I think we might see more of that happening,” Podolyak said. Smoke rising from the beach at Saky after the attack on the airbase. Photo: AP It also meant that Ukraine considers the Crimean bridge linking the occupied peninsula to the Russian mainland a legitimate military target. “It is an illegal construction and the main gateway for resupplying the Russian army in Crimea. Such items must be destroyed,” he warned. Although Ukraine has refused to take public responsibility for the Saky air base attack, it has done so privately, and the incident came as a number of Russian strategic targets were hit deep behind the front lines. There was speculation on Monday that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman allegedly linked to the private military company Wagner, could have been injured or killed in a Ukrainian rocket attack in Donbas. Photos released by a Russian journalist of the man’s meeting with Wagner mercenaries in eastern Ukraine made it easy to pinpoint the location of the base. And on Sunday, the building in Mironivska was hit by a Ukrainian artillery strike, probably from a Kheimar system. Podolyak, who was a negotiator of the peace talks in the early stages of the conflict, said there was no prospect of Russia negotiating seriously until it suffered a defeat on the battlefield. He said some unnamed European countries were under “the illusion” that the Kremlin might pursue talks in good faith. “Russian ears only open when a giant military bat hits Russia on the head,” he said. He also praised Britain’s role in supporting Ukraine so far, which in some respects had surpassed the US, and said he expected strong support to continue after Boris Johnson steps down as prime minister. “You’ve become a giant – it’s hard to go back to being a baby,” he added. Johnson had offered “personal and emotional support” to Zelensky on “the darkest day in Ukraine’s history,” Podoliak said. The UK’s contribution will be remembered for centuries, he suggested.
