commander-in-chief oleksandr syrsky claims that ukraine has real plans for the return of crimea. what are syrskyi's statements based on, how much do they have in common with reality, because at the same time, ukraine is barely holding back the russian offensive on the donba. where russian troops, albeit slowly, are capturing villages and have come close to such cities as toretsk, new york, and chasiv yar. this is svoboda live. my name is vlasta lazur, and today we are talking about the situation at the front, the prospect of the liberation of crimea and the case of general yury sodol, which, as it became known, no. well, let's start from the front. these shots were released by 32 separate mechanized brigades, cabs, explosions from artillery and mortars, drones. in the sky, broken

buildings, roads littered with debris, this is toretsk. in peacetime, 35,000 people lived here, now 3.5, donetsk ova reported. russian troops have been actively attacking toretsk for about a month. they managed to break through the defense line at the end of june during the rotation of the armed forces brigades. let me remind you, at that time , the turkish maryana bezugla publicly accused general yury sodol of a breakthrough in the defense. we are about we will also mention it today in a slightly different context, but returning to toretsk itself, 70% of the city was destroyed, it was reported today in donetsk ova. well, in general, almost all the front-line cities are badly damaged. now we're showing you footage, it's new york. the photos were published on the autumn pages of the deep state project, artillery and aviation destroy urban buildings and the remains of the industrial sector. russian troops are on the outskirts of new york. in a similar situation and the times of yar. the city is heavily destroyed, and russian troops are standing close by. at three

donbas, is this a real mission, at what cost, we will talk about it now , stanislav krasnov, platoon commander of the first airborne assault battalion, 95th separate airborne assault brigade, joins our broadcast, i congratulate you, i congratulate you, i wish you health, each other, you know each other in the turkish direction and are there, what is the situation there now, the situation here is extremely difficult, extremely tense, the russians have been storming without a break for a long time. for more than a month, they have been storming mainly infantry, by large infantry groups, but our defense line is holding, well, mainly thanks to the stability, courage, moral and willpower qualities of our infantry, first of all, and thanks to the professionalism of the calculations of the shock air defense systems, artillery, and the professionalism of the commanders, the defense line is holding, despite the total superiority of the russians in everything, both in the infantry and in tech. these both in artillery and in

the total absolute superiority in aviation, we are just showing, this is actually turetsk, there are some ruins there, tell me, how far from the city are the russian troops standing, this is it kilometer, it’s less than a kilometer, it’s already on the outskirts of the city, well, the battles are going on now in the nearby villages, in particular the northern, iron and so on, there in these villages too it’s like if the villages were densely built up, there’s a lot of private... sector a lot quarters, many high-rise buildings, that is where all the battles take place, the fiercest, there is also a wooded area there, that is, such a relief is shifted in the forest as well, and at the same time in high-rise buildings there are very fierce battles, it happens that even in one in one in one and in the same building, in different entrances, ours and occupying troops, and well, our guys are fighting very fiercely, in fact, only on this...

everything depends, as i said, on what you are telling now, well, it really seems that it is extremely difficult to hold donbas, there prevail russian forces, you say they are many times more, and although slowly, they are still capturing villages, we can also see cities, turning them into ruins, literally some time ago they were talking about the fact that the difficulty is that there is no weapons, delayed american aid, now they allegedly say so, at least officially, there are weapons, before... they said that there are no people, but now the ministry of defense often reports that, after all , the mobilization allegedly gave good results, and everything is going well, and the armed forces of ukraine at the front receive support. what is the difficulty for the military now to hold the front line in donbas, using the example of the turkish direction? well , there is only one difficulty here, it is the total advantage of the russians in everything, first of all in manpower, because, for example, on one of our points... where can

there are three or four people, it can be attacked by 50 people at the same time, and you yourself understand how difficult it is, they do not count on losses, absolutely, drive them to the wall with cannon fodder from... theirs, they absolutely do not spare them, in particular there private military companies are formed from convicts, they are thrown forward from forcibly mobilized our citizens from the occupied territories, they are also not spared at all, they are not counted, they are also thrown forward to be slaughtered, and it is very difficult to resist this, if there was not an influx in such a large number, they, well, they that's how they fight, they're used to it as a strategy. world war ii, plus, after all , they have aviation, we don’t have it, and the cabs, which cannot be countered by anything, except, as far as i understand, the f-16, maybe it can change something here, and that’s how they throw perhaps dozens in our positions, and

there simply cannot be any defense against them, such is the difficult situation now, but anyway, well, at least in our line of responsibility of our brigade, they have not advanced for this... time has not advanced, and i am sure , that do not advance, they will not enter turetsk, battles are really going in the villages on the outskirts, why, why are you sure that you, you are now describing extremely terrible things, difficult things, there, it can be seen, it is very difficult for the ukrainian troops, you say that the russians prevail many times, and this continues, why you have such optimistic forecasts that they will not take turkey, if they could not advance to our lines and distances in a month, then accordingly they will not be able to, anyway, although they have huge reserves accumulated here, in my personal opinion, subjectively, they planned this operation for a long time and brought it here, saved up very large reserves, but these reserves are not infinite, they will run out sooner or later,

already according to intelligence data, several private military companies have been completely destroyed here, in particular, the so-called private military company veterans, which was ... they have almost 100% losses there , they are all exterminated, the convicts who came there after them are also almost all exterminated, some yakuts are already moving here, there are buryats, who were not there at the beginning, it will all end, it is already over, and they will not advance further , the same situation was also, for example, in kupinsky direction, when they stormed continuously for more than two months, and we stood there, resisted and did not let them advance, although the sticks there were destroyed. completely, or in the lyman direction, when we were standing, and they too could not advance, we completely destroyed their entire army there, and they were forced to raise another army to reinforce the destroyed army, here i think that the situation is the same, although, of course

, it is absolutely impossible to relax here, there is no optimism, here the price paid for this is very high, and accordingly it is necessary to the efforts of all... the country, in general, all citizens were directed to our victory, that's the only way to win, you can't relax, and what can help you win? a large number of weapons, first of all artillery shells, so that there is a sufficient number of them, secondly, this is a large number of attack drones, because they are also relied on here, well, it is not that they are lacking, but there simply cannot be a lot of them. as many as there will be, they will all be used as effectively as possible, they are used here in completely different ways, and as percussion, that is, as now on cadres fly in, it is most likely our units, our calculations work, both for mining, for destroying the enemy in

the dirt with flovizers, for intelligence, all intelligence is based on them, for the delivery of equipment and products, for example, to our... to our infantry at zero, it is all together very important, well, the entire line of defense rests on them, we need as much of this as possible. oleksandr syrskyi gave a long interview with zagardian, we will analyze it in detail, but in it he said the following thesis: we do not protect the ruins of death, but neither does he said that he does not want to achieve his goals at any cost, well, we see solid ruins in donbas, can you confirm sirsky's words? well, i didn't read this interview, unfortunately, because in order not to interpret it somehow incorrectly, i will definitely not comment on it, then such a question, it may be a bit harsh, but i want to understand, in addition to the fact that in donbas, it is ukrainian territory, no doubt, but from a military

point of view, what do your brothers and you and yourself say, do you think there is any point in defending these ruins if the russian forces prevail amazement, and... ukrainian lacks something, well , what is the alternative, that is, to retreat to where, i would not understand here, well, there is this, there is that... which, where the russians did not enter, all the destruction that is there , this is the destruction of them by artillery and cabs, immediately behind it is kostyantynivka, a huge city, if they go to turetsk, next will be kostyantynivka, well, of course, yes, a huge city, where one lives a relatively peaceful life, counting the cabs that fly by every night, but people are already more or less used to it, and it is already being followed by very large cities of its type kramatorsk, slovyansk, is a strategic goal. russians, which they could declare as their own great victory. i understand, i understand

that you are in the turkish direction, but maybe you are communicating with your brothers in donbas, where the situation is the most difficult right now? what we civilians see on the map, the most active battles are new york, turetsk and chasiv yar. is it possible to separate among them where the situation is the most difficult, or is it plus or minus the same? unfortunately, the sound disappeared. i hope you can hear me, yes, it's the same here, it's a tough situation because they're coming at the same time from new york and to toretsk because of the noises, through northern and zalizne, but i think that the same, the same difficult situation, here and there and there, in principle, as far as i now have control of the situation, i still managed to stop them, and they cannot advance either there or there, i thank you very much, platoon commander of the first airborne assault battalion of the 95th separate airborne assault brigade of the armed forces

of ukraine. was on radio svoboda. thank you very much, we talked about the situation in donbas. and syrsky's statement. now ukraine has real plans regarding the return of crimea - said the commander-in-chief of the armed forces oleksandr syrskyi in a major interview for the british edition of the guardian. after a series of ukrainian attacks , russia was forced to leave the port of sevastopol - said sirskyi. drone and missile strikes have destroyed radar and missile installations in crimea, and ukraine's goal is to destroy the kerch bridge connecting the occupied peninsula with russia. when this might happen, syrskyi refused to say, only saying that the liberation of crimea is real. listen. it's real. of course, this is a big military one secrecy. we will do everything possible to reach the internationally recognized borders of 1991. we must win to free ours. citizens who are in the occupied territories and are suffering. it must be said that

recently the ukrainian political and military leadership does not reject ukraine's desire or desire to liberate crimea, but it does not make concrete promises as to how and when it might happen, especially now no one promises coffee in yalta, as it used to be mykhailo podolyak did, here we can also mention kyryll budanov's loud promises about when and how the armed forces of ukraine will enter crimea, so against this whole background, in fact, sirskyi's statement. sounds somewhat resonant and encouraging, but does the commander-in-chief have reason to make such predictions, or is it realistic to knock russia out of crimea by force in some conceivable perspective and at the same time not lose positions on other fronts, for example in donbas, which we just talked about, to our broadcast is joined by roman kostenko, people's deputy, voices faction, secretary of the committee on national security, defense and intelligence, roman, my greetings, good evening, sirsky's statement that it is realistic to liberate crimea is more of a figure of speech, a sign of politeness, or is this message based on some real plans and calculations? well

, the plans and calculations are primarily owned by the general staff and the headquarters, let’s put it this way, they hope for the near future, and i will say that it all depends on the resource, we understand who we are currently waging war against, what resource they have and the syrian he himself named the resource that the russian federation currently possesses, that they now have the strength and means. what is she in in the future, i am ready to bring here to build up to almost 700 thousand the troops that are here, so everything is real, everything rests on resources, if we will produce more, if our partners will give us more, then, if everything is normal for us mobilization is both qualitative and quantitative, then of course we can talk about it, you just know, all such civilian people, i will say yes, there are my colleagues, with whom we talked about it today. they say, well, from what we see on the news, from what we hear from the military,

it is now extremely difficult for ukraine to keep donbas, ukraine has uncertainty regarding the support from the us, it is exactly about the help that you talked about, what will happen after the elections, it is not known at all, and here the question arises, what is crimea, where does such hope come from? well, it's good that our commander-in-chief believes that we will return to our territories, and not as they say, whether he surrenders or not, he clearly gives as long as he shows his own. the position that he believes that ukraine will return its territories, in what way? this is a very difficult path, unequivocally, and i believe that it should be combined, and against, well , it should be... not only ukraine, but also other countries, our partners, should be interested, because this is also a matter of military , it is very important here, it is also a direct question of our partners helping us, both with sanctions and on the diplomatic front, and there with the help, let's say, to destroy russia economically, this is

a complex work, which in a complex, to which there must be the military-political leadership was also involved. and the political leadership and the whole the ukrainian people, what is lacking in us now, from my point of view , the faith of the entire ukrainian people has been lost, that is, there is an impression now that only the military is fighting and some part of the population, all the rest, let's say, stand aside, that's us it must be returned, and then the faith will return, do you have a recipe for how to return it, well, look, we also have to say that and and and well, it is necessary, there is no such specific... one , some kind of recipe so that all this can be done tomorrow will be, it is necessary for the government to work, the supreme commander, the ukrainian people, information fields, information field, we have to do this in a complex way, because the military is actually talking about it now, it seems that the military is separate, the civilian is separate, and it happened somewhere, probably after that, let's say this , we had very high

hopes for this counteroffensive of the 23rd year, then the whole society was, it was... so united that, just when they promised coffee in yalta, you have everyone in yalta, yes, and everyone understood that this is it, well, such a hope has arisen in people that it will soon end, a we, as soldiers, have explained for as long as i can remember that military operations are not always successful, a contour offensive does not always mean victory, there immediately, immediately victory, although there was not the task of victory, the task was to take a more serious position to the sea of ​​azov, and many people were disappointed, so we have to... return this faith and for this we have to work, everyone has to work for it, look, here are elementary things, as you say, how to do it, how much do we know about the military, who are fighting now on the battlefield, our heroes, who is anyone destroyed 10 planes there, someone destroyed 10 tanks there, someone successfully led a company, such

people should not be politicians now, but such people should be in the columns of our, well, excuse me newspapers, telegram channels ee... such information resources, and on the whole country should be equal to them, we have the impression that they are being hidden somewhere so that they do not have any competition there, either political or any other, this should now be primarily in ukraine, we should see those heroes, starting from headmaster and ending with soldiers on the battlefield, and this country must emulate them, this is the beginning, this is the beginning that we have to make, then the whole country must work for victory, but the whole, when... we will all work, and not some hundredth of the fate of the military, then we, russia, even after this , will see that the country is united, and then it will be more difficult for them to conduct hostilities, well , someone is the leader, but the leader appeared on the front pages of the guardian today, if continuing the topic of crimea, just our colleagues they published photos from crimea, their sources there, as i understand it, sent them

about the fact that fortifications are being built in crimea, we are just showing this photo near the kerch bridge, where a floating crane is visible. the number of barges with which russia is trying to protect the kerch bridge from ukrainian naval drones, and that these barges will also increase, but i don’t know, maybe this is a sign of russia’s protection of the peninsula, a sign of the expectation of the armed forces of ukraine, i don’t know, can you briefly describe to comment on how much ukraine has strengthened its positions, military positions in crimea, well, without a physical, without a physical presence there, well, what... the russians are doing, they are definitely defending, and now the only way to destroy the crimean city is, of course, rockets, well, aviation or missile strikes, because they have already seen that they have a weakness, it is naval drones, and they have completely closed them, they are trying with the help of those submerged there ships, nets, which are, well, elementary means of placing smoke screens, nets, these are

simple means that make it impossible for combat drones of our ships to approach there, which concerns us in general. to the black sea fleet and in general to crimea, to the crimea, then, well, let's say it is unprecedentedly large, because a country that, in fact, does not have its own fleet, forced a country that has one of the largest fleets in the world to withdraw almost all of it from its bases and hide it on russian territory, because here they actually have one , as tsirsky said, one third of the fleet was struck by means that in fact should not have been invented at all. the time of hostilities, so i think that no fleet in the world suffered such losses in fact during the second world war, it was only there in the battle of ships between themselves. here, in fact , it was destroyed by simple, cheap means in and in our territorial waters, both in russian and in occupied waters, so this is a serious operation that, let's say, was carried out, and eh,

and it was such an example of asymmetric actions that we we have to copy and try to copy for our ground operations, it is of course more difficult, there are different conditions, but it shows that this is the only way you can do it with forces that outnumber us. that's how you can fight, now donbas, if you look at the map there dipstate the same, then the russian troops came close to the village of new york, they are actually on the outskirts, a large pocket has formed nearby, this is not yet captured territory, but it looks like the russian troops want to align the front line there, to capture turkestk above, which very destroyed, we talked about it today, times, there is also a difficult situation, the city is destroyed, such a general question regarding donbas, ukrainian troops? now have enough strength and resources to hold these cities in donbas, and how much they will still be able to maintain, because the military man who was in front of you says, well , they are receiving, but the situation is extremely

difficult, yes, the situation is difficult, and it is difficult in the first place that the replenishment of personnel is still not going normally, because people on training grounds, as a result of mobilization, are preparing, yes, yes, those who were recruited there. a certain amount that must be supplied, in addition to the fact that our reserves are replenished, the active combat units also need, really need, i literally spoke with the commanders there yesterday, need personnel, and there, let's say, the issue is difficult, although we have recruited people, but they are there according to the law, they have to stay there for a certain time at the training grounds, they endure it, but now everyone is waiting for the replenishment itself, this is the first, and the second, unfortunately, our partners... i have already said about it several times, and let's say this, looking at even the certificates that the ministry of defense gives me, as the secretary of the committee, and a member of the committee, there are good

numbers, but, but on alas, there according to estimates of units and what they say is 50% of the needs are the ones that are needed, just according to the standards, and for maintenance, let's say, normal maintenance. the positions we are in, unfortunately, i say once again that we often blame some commanders there, we often blame the military there, but we have to understand one thing, what to put here, i don't know eisenhower, there is a general, yes, which fought in europe during the second world war, there, those who don't know, there, i don't know, well, for example, napoleon, whom everyone knows, or else, if you don't have in this war, the modern war artillery, no means, no equipment, then, unfortunately, there will be an even worse general. against you, but has all these resources, will prevail and will gradually advance, unfortunately, these are the rules of war, so until we build up a normal amount of ammunition, until we

equalize the air superiority that is now with the enemy, unfortunately , we will, let's say, gradually withdraw, and i want to say once again, when we talk about direction drones, we will, yes, we will slowly withdraw, yes, it will not be strategic, but tactical bu there will be successes, there will be an enemy, because he simply destroys the positions where we are, we have nothing good to answer him in return, and when they often talk about the military, the military does not give drones there, the military does not give shells there , the military does not have air superiority there, look, the military, they have to take shells, they have to take drones and fight with them on the battlefield, the ukrainian people have to give them, and it has to be organized by... the political leadership of the state, which works with partners , which organizes the work, the ministry of strategic industry, the ministry of defense, has to take all this, there is the position of the supreme commander,

the supreme president is responsible for this, he has to take these resources and give them, and then the army fights with it, when we say that the military lacks something, it is ours the problem is, we don't give them that, but we demand that they don't leave, this is important to understand, roman, you talked about people, about mobilization. just then, in an interview with the guardian, syrsky also spoke about the situation at the front difficult, and the publication itself says that the armed forces have been retreating since the fall of last year, although little by little, they are retreating, and the authors also state that now in these conditions the most important task before the head is to gather people, well, it is not here only probably his task, but let's listen to this fragment and then i have another question, one of the most urgent tasks for syrskyi is to find new recruits to replace the dead and wounded ukrainian soldiers. those who fight in the trenches are exhausted. patriotic the ardor that prompted many to volunteer in the spring of 2022 has died down. newly. the government

lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25. a new law came into force last week requiring men to register their details at military posts. many have done so, others are hiding. well, this is the information the western audience receives about ukraine. if we talk about mobilization, you repeatedly said on my broadcast that this law led to a record high recruitment of new recruits in the first two months. please tell me this that you said it was only. 50%, did i understand you correctly, that only 50% of the needs can be covered by these new recruits, because from the very beginning i had supplies of my own supplies, this is about supplies, okay, then about people, these new recruits who will come as a result of the work of the new mobilization law, these are people who will be able to simply hold the front, or these are people who will be able to carry out a counteroffensive, look, everything will depend on what

plans our command has. and what we said, again, i will operate on the fact that the same person is there, well, according to his information, that if such pace continues, as it was there in june and july, then in principle by the end of the year, all our brigades, which are in principle created and newly created in our country, will be staffed by 85%, this is full combat readiness, it will be there until million of the army, which will be equipped there, that is, a brigade. there is a certain percentage when it is considered ready for battle, and with these troops you can both attack and defend, it will all depend on, one thing, people, another, what they are staffed with, if they are people just with machine guns, it’s one story, if it will be a standard brigade, i don’t know, three or five battalion composition, in which there is a tank battalion, for this you need tanks, in which there is a brigade artillery group, a jet division, well engineering company, reconnaissance, this is a completely different

structure. and i say once again, it will depend on what forces and means we will have, and whether there will be shells for these, many unknowns, and we can equip troops, we will not have equipment, we may have a lot of equipment, no to have enough people, so now the task is a balance, to mobilize quality people, recently the issue of quality has been very acute, because sometimes the military leaders call up such people who remain in the initial centers, teams of different units come there, look at them and say, sorry, but fight them yourself. we will be better off standing there without anyone, and that is a fact, and this is a problem that needs to be solved directly there , to give tasks to the military commanders for low-quality personnel, i don’t want you to know that now perceived, as they said about low-quality children, but there are people who are taken with diseases or i don't know at the last stage of alcoholism or something else, this and that, in order to fulfill the plan, you don't need to do this, you need, you need normal personnel . who can

perform the tasks, there are those that are set before them, the quality, quantity and supply of weapons, then we can talk about the counteroffensive, and about the defense, and about the return of the territories. and i have one last question, roman, because we will talk about it in more detail later to speak, but the day before, the head of the azov brigade's headquarters, bohdan krotevich, said that he had already filed a complaint with the dbi earlier, wrote a statement against general yuriy sodol, and now he filed a complaint in court against the dbi, due to the fact that the bureau did not open a case about .. against yuriy sodol, the ex-commander of the united forces of the armed forces of ukraine, who, let me remind you, the military blames for the loss of territories and thousands of soldiers' lives. sodol does not comment on this story, we personally addressed the general staff today, krotevych says that this is deliberate inaction. i have i have a simple question for you now, but do you know what yuriy sodol is doing, what position he holds, and whether there have been any, if not legal, consequences for him as a result of krotevych's statement?

well, first of all, i want to say that we are a state governed by the rule of law, and all the statements of any military personnel, well, if each of us will be accused of the military for thousands of dead, then we are not a state governed by the rule of law and not a democratic one, when the police are on the ice, but they do not investigate , you see, close the circle look, they answered clearly, i did not see this one answer, but as far as i know, the answer was that they either see or do not see what the composition of the crime is, regarding sodel himself, well, i think ... that he paid for all this resonance in general, uh, uh - er, by the fact that he was removed from his post, well, for a general, let’s say so, but he heads the khortets troop grouping, but no, hnatov heads the khortka troop grouping, he doesn’t lead anything, sodol was removed from all positions, it’s clear, well, yes , just in it, so once again, statements can be whatever you want, emotional, non-emotional, we are a legal state, if there is the composition of the crime, and let...