3,000 russian soldiers are at risk of falling into the cauldron in kurshchyna, where the offensive of the sis continues, meanwhile the situation in donbas is becoming catastrophic for ukraine, writes the western press. why and whether? a chance to save donetsk region, about it today in svoboda live, my name is vlasta lazor. russian troops in the kursk region risk being in a cauldron, there are 2.6 km left before its closure, writes julian röbke, an analyst of the german publication bilt. let me remind you that during the weekend ukrainian troops blew up all the bridges over the seim river. it's on in the north of the glushkovsky district of the kursk region, the detonation of the crossings can cut off the russian group from. shchyna,

as glushkovsky district is surrounded by the territory of ukraine from the west and south. in order to avoid the encirclement, the russian military tries to create pontoon crossings, but the armed forces track them and destroy them with kabikadze drones, - notes yuliyan ryobke. according to bilt's estimates , about 3 thousand russian soldiers remain on the total area of ​​the boiler of 700 km, a thousand each in the villages of tetkino and glushkovo, and another thousand along the border with ukraine. whether the armed forces of ukraine can seize this territory depends on the number of ukrainian forces in this direction, ryobke summarizes. in the meantime, the new york times states that being surrounded or pressed against the river is a very scary outcome for soldiers. in 2015 , russia used this tactic in the battles for the debaltsiv bridge. then ukraine agreed to a ceasefire after thousands of its soldiers found themselves in the so- called debaltsev cauldron, they remind.

authors of the publication. well, the day before, let me remind you, volodymyr zelenskyi said that the armed forces control 92 settlements in kurshchyna. by the way, in total , there are 186 settlements in the suzhan, koreniv, and glushkovsky districts of kurshchyna, where the zsu entered . this is reported by the russian service of the bbc. meanwhile, the ministry of defense of russia continues to report on repelling attacks by the armed forces of ukraine in kurshchyna. they do not comment on the prospect of boilers there, but, for example, today the russian ministry of defense... released a video, which, as noted, already shows the consequences of a firefight in the kursk region, as a result of which the equipment of the armed forces, look, at the beginning of the village, four units of equipment with rpgs and disposables were destroyed. four cars

moved here to the intersection btr-82a with a 30-caliber gun with direct guidance began to work on the technique, but four cars broke through there further along the road, the infantry was destroyed, four pieces of equipment were taken as a trophy, two strykers, one cougar and one canadian car rochelle senator. our broadcast was joined by roman pagulych, a correspondent of the radio liberty project of donbas realiy, roman, my congratulations. i will say for ours audience, you visited kurshchyna today as part of the prestur. tell me, please, first of all, what do the ukrainian servicemen say about the probable cauldron or its prospects there near the banks of the seim river? it is probably worth starting with this, that communication with the military is very limited, and precisely within the framework of the prest. well, no one comments on

the information that relates to the security of operations, and in general, the journalists who were with us, including us, were not given the opportunity to talk specifically with the military, that is, what happens next on the west, that is, the territory where active hostilities are currently taking place, unfortunately i cannot comment, because it is interesting to me, but no one has told us anything about it, so far they have not commented. well, then i say yes, so to speak, the fact is that along the route connecting ukraine, russia, that border, which is currently inactive, various vehicles are actively circulating, both for entry and exit, that is , there is no such feeling, that there is a lull and nothing else is happening in that direction, the fields are burning in the direction of leaving ukraine, with ukraine, that is, it can be assumed that either rocket artillery was working there towards russia. and it started to burn, or there was

shelling from the russian troops, yes , we also heard the arrivals, that is, there is intensity, drones are constantly hanging in the sky, because we had drone detectors with us and they constantly signaled what was in the air there , at a distance of 5-10 km from us, there were several russian samezal drones. roman, what about this question, well, you have been covering the war for many years and worked there during the ato, do you remember well what the debaltsiv boiler looked like there, what it was like, in principle this is the prospect of 3,000 soldiers getting into the so-called cauldron there, this is from the point of view. war, military achievements, this is a great achievement, of course it is, the only thing i can slightly disagree with, not with mr. ryobke, is that debaltsev is perceived as a kotal, after all, in ukrainian military circles

, many perceive devaltseve as a very successful operation, because after all , the ukrainian military then came out with minimal losses, taking into account the number that was there, and about leaning into... the river, well, there are different, different experience even during this war, we remember, for example, the withdrawal of the russian troops, who fled to the dnipro river and nevertheless withdrew in an orderly manner. we remember the history of the defense of north-donetsk, where bridges were also destroyed, and the ukrainian army already had to leave, and despite the very difficult situation, some equipment was left behind, something was destroyed, blown up, something could not be taken away, but only personnel... brought out, that is , different examples, how to organize pontoon crossings or whether they will deliver boats, whether they will be able to get the people out of there is already a question, probably for the military and how the ukrainian army will organize fire control

over those areas where a large number of russian troops are likely to be located. got it, roman, i understand that today, when you visited kurshchyna, you mostly talked with... freely with the people who live there, what do they say, how do they meet ukrainian journalists, and what do they tell you? well, there is probably a difference between what they say and what they think, because in principle it is what they say there is no aggression, well, at least i didn’t feel it in my direction, they don’t refuse to talk, as a rule it seems that no one took them away, they thank you for the fact that there are prisons, there is water, and there for the second day on ... for example, a doctor works, he comes according to the principle of having worked in a day, accepted those who need help, any medical or for illnesses, since there are many people of flight, or for example, today there was a woman who had there was a shrapnel wound, this is a ukrainian doctor, he is going there, he is going there

from the ukrainian territory or what? it is a representative of the defense forces who arrives at a certain time, a military command that is already there working in the court. er, it somehow informs the locals, after all, many of those locals who stayed there, they live in basements, in places known to the ukrainian military, and they centrally report about it there, of course, on the other hand, there are those locals who walk, let's say, with things that were definitely in various markets, shops and there with these carts that they used to go around the markets and look for food there, that is... i suppose, i didn't see it with my own eyes, but i suppose that people continue to do what is called in the western language looting, to collect things that no one controls, and in the city itself, pigeons are also flying, i had to wait,

there are russian drones in the air, that is, it is felt, at least in my opinion, that russia has already regrouped , transferred certain... i have a last question in ukraine, the topic of the possible evacuation of people from kurshchyna is being actively discussed, have you talked about it with people and are they ready to go to ukraine as part of the evacuation in the event of something? you know, there are different opinions, there was one local woman who seems to be ready because she has relatives somewhere here in... others want to go somewhere in the depths of russia and there they hardly require a corridor, but there are those who in general would like to go somewhere abroad there in particular, they saw a young girl who was still a minor and she said that if

she had a foreign passport there, she would have left somewhere in europe, that is, different people, opinions are different, and the age of those people who remained in the judge, which is currently controlled, is also different. roman, thank you very much, roman pagulych, correspondent of the radio liberty donbas realia project, who visited kurshchyna today. thank you. well, despite the offensive of the armed forces of ukraine in kurshchyna. and the prospects of boilers for the russian military, ukraine continues to lose donbas. today, for example, the ministry of defense of russia officially announced that russian troops captured new york, which, let me remind you, is a village near turetsk. about the fact that ukraine no longer controls new york, for example, maryana bezugla, a deputy from the defense and intelligence committee, reported on our broadcast yesterday. however, the ukrainian military command, in particular the general staff , has not officially announced the loss of new york as of now. well, the fall report of the deep state project notes that new york is in the thick of things. although on the map itself we see that the village is marked in red, which means that it is occupied. ukrainian soldiers

working in donetsk region are writing farewell posts to new york, you can also see the post of journalist diana butsko. and at the same time ukrainian pravda, citing the words of an interlocutor in the 53rd brigade, writes that the armed forces continue to control 20% of the village's territory. rfe/rl cannot promptly confirm this information. well, russian troops launched an attack on new york, i will remind you, in the summer of 24 and less. for more than two months, they captured most of the village, as noted by the military observer bilt julian ryobke, whom i already mentioned today, the situation for the armed forces of ukraine in donbas is catastrophic, the russian bridgehead is expanding here every day, well, for example, the pokrovsk government is now very asks people to leave in the next week or two. at the beginning of the year, russian troops were standing 38-40 km from pokrovsk, today they are at a distance of less than 10 km. i will remind you that pokrovsk is one of the main defense points of ukraine and a key logistics university. in the donetsk region, and its capture can bring russia closer to the previously stated goal of the kremlin - the occupation of the entire

donetsk region. is there a chance to keep donbas? we will talk about it now with the military serviceman. he joins our broadcast, call sign physicist, commander of the 68th tank division, a separate hunter's brigade. i congratulate you. i wish you a good day. i see you, i already see you. each other do you agree with the estimates that in a week or two. they are buying blood, well, maybe, despite the heroic defense that the guys are holding, its meat assaults continue here every day, with the involvement of large reserves, eh, so everything is possible, that is, you understand, this is a war, to guess in advance just like that, to say, that specifically in two weeks we will lose pokrovsk, i think not, but the battles may come closer, well, close, let's say so, to of this settlement. what does it mean if... russia will fully or partially establish control over pokrovsk, or as you say, come close there. how will it

affect the general or strategic situation? i understood the question, understood. look, pokrovsk is the main key logistics center of the whole, the entire group of forces of the armed forces of ukraine, which now holds the territory from kurakhovo to konstantinovka, roughly speaking. that is, if we lose pokrovsk, lose control over... routes, there are other spare ones routes, but they are not so successful, they will not have a good carrying capacity, that is, it will be much, much more difficult for us here with the loss of pokrovsk or with the fact that the enemy will come close and cut off the main logistics routes, the railway, well so on. under such circumstances, is there any chance at all to keep donbas? there are always chances. that is, spare routes exist, but they do not have such capacity, that is, it

will be much more difficult, it will be ten times more difficult to maintain than it is it is possible to do now, although it is very difficult now, but i wanted to say that it is much more difficult, it is extremely difficult for the armed forces to hold donbas. you know, today the financial times published such an ambiguous publication, the journalist christopher miller writes that he spoke with the ukrainian military, and he writes that the ukrainian military. for the first time since ukraine received aid from the united states, it began to experience a shortage of ammunition, and according to the military, this ammunition shortage occurred just as resources were being transferred to kursk region. can you confirm or deny these reports? well , yes, of course there is a certain shortage of shells, although still, compared to what was, for example, six months ago, there is much more ammunition, although the shortage is felt. and it is felt very strongly, there is still a shortage of shells, and the front needs much more shells than they

are given at the present time, it is somehow connected with the course operation, what do you think, in my opinion, well, i don't know, it is more probably related to our decisions commanders-in-chief, our agency staff, and those people who are involved in the distribution of these shells, i think that these moments are somehow more connected with them, and with the fact that, unfortunately, we do not have our own manufacturer. enough, i believe that it is connected with this, we would need to increase and build up our own production of projectiles in the country, at least key ones for... mortars, tanks, key artillery, and what is your general attitude to the kurshchyna operation, because now there are already many military experts, when two weeks have passed, state that it was very risky, because it is necessary to hold donbas, meanwhile, ukraine sent its most valuable, combat-ready brigades to kurshchyna, and it is risky, what do you think? my opinion is that, well, i really want

everything to succeed there and what the supreme high command planned, so that everything... well, it worked out for us in our armed forces of ukraine, but i also, well, my personal opinion is that it would have been better to apply these reserves, for example, on the pokrovsky direction, on the turkish direction, on the same one in new york, where fierce battles are going on, where it is very difficult for us, and where we currently lack resources, people, equipment, but we do not know all the plans of the high command, the main command, so let's hope that what they have planned will succeed and everything will be ok, just a minute. going back because you mentioned new york, what do you know about new york, is it completely lost or some part of the town? i can't, i don't have such information, i can't tell you whether completely or not completely, we are a little on the other side, but i i know that it is also very difficult there, that it is very difficult for us and very difficult for them, very difficult. i thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on the kurdish operation, talking about the situation in

donetsk region, a military serviceman, call sign physicist, we will not mention his name, the commander of the 68th tank unit, but a separate hunter brigade. thank you very much. thank you. and so, the armed forces of ukraine took control of more russian territories in two weeks than moscow captured ukrainian in the whole of 2024. however, such a stunning operational success has not yet achieved one very important goal. he, he did not distract russian forces from eastern ukraine, in particular from donbas, where moscow is advancing steadily and rapidly. the financial times writes about it. moreover, as the author of the publication notes. and the transfer of ukrainian resources to the kursk region, on the contrary, allowed russia to accelerate its offensive in donbas, says the publication, the author of which quotes the ukrainian military, which i have also partially quoted. joining our broadcast is oleksandr musienko, head of the center for military legal research, oleksandr, i i welcome you to our broadcast. i congratulate you. i can't see you yet, but i hope we can get you on the screen now. let's talk

about the political, political objectives of the operation, leave it in parentheses for now and... talk about the military, do you agree that the transfer of ukrainian forces to kurshchyna could lead to a weakening of ukrainian positions in donbas? i think not, because if we look at the forces that ukraine transferred, mirroring russia transferred from the same directions, that is , they removed, removed the forces from the kramatorsk direction, forces were withdrawn from the kharkiv direction, russia was also withdrawing forces from there, that is, we are actually continuing... the battle for donbas, for donetsk region, including in kurt region. i would not at all perceive these things in isolation, because no matter what, one of the goals of the military operation in kursk region is to help the ukrainian defense operation in donetsk region. another issue is that to date there is still no

significant transfer of russian troops directly from the territory of donetsk region, although there is... a fresh message from the commander-in-chief that the enemy is active, is now more actively transferring its troops directly to the kursk region, but a certain transfer has taken place, of course, which from the point of view of the fact that russia does not stop active offensive actions in the hot areas of donetsk, this is true. unfortunately, it can now be stated that there is still no movement that would talk about a significant weakening of russian attacks on donetsk region. it is not necessary to speak, but it takes time, i think that ukraine has this time, of course it does, we have no other way out, because from the point of view now the situation, how it is developing, we can see that russia is trying to outwit us, we are trying to outwit russia, they are trying to distract us, we

are trying to distract us, this is happening throughout this war, it is possible that we will counterattack in some directions.. .they then put pressure on other directions, so strictly speaking, it's all one theater of war. i don't know, you say that ukraine has time and that time is needed, but today the financial times already wrote about the fact that ukraine is already is starting to experience a shell famine in the donetsk region, we can now listen to a fragment of this publication. one of the commanders of the ukrainian artillery brigade in eastern ukraine told the financial times that part of the russian offensive was that kyiv moved its limited resources north, its troops returning to rationing shells for their guns, for the first time since congress suspended providing assistance to ukraine. by the us, because the ammunition was redistributed for the invasion of the kurdish region of russia. oleksandr, this is disturbing signal, what we are just hearing, if it is

true. why? we had redistribution of shells even before this, is there any news? that is, depending on whether some of our directions are determined by a certain priority for a certain period of time, then they are redistributed. we have a very large front line, unfortunately, to the same extent, there is not enough for everyone today, this must be understood from the point of view of the risks now, the ukrainian operation, if it will continue in the cold, and if the ukrainian forces are approved decision the supreme commander, the president of ukraine, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, that the operation must continue, this will certainly lead to the fact that we will need to weaken our presence most likely in donetsk region and... retreat to certain positions of agglomerations, i.e. pokrovsk, kostyantynivka, kramatorsk, sloviansk, without, and from there you can hold the defense from these places of fortresses

for a very long time with smaller forces, therefore, strictly speaking, there is now a choice, and therefore the risk of this operation from the point of view of moving, trying to rylsk, kurchatov and kursk, or not to move, and then just leave the buffer zone that the president spoke about and... the distribution will continue as usual, although , again, it must be understood that we now have a slowdown in the supply of partners , and the president also spoke about this, unfortunately, it is happening, and once again , to conduct the main combat operations in donetsk region, that is , in order to advance more actively in kurt region, in donetsk region, in some areas you will most likely have to retreat, and this is already this retreat that you are talking about, hasn’t it already started, look, the authorities... even the deputies joined in, they are calling to leave pokrovsk, i can’t imagine how it will be, because there are more than 50,000 people there, and the authorities say: we have to leave for a week or two new york is already

lost, as far as i understand, fighting is going on in turkey, it has either partially died there, or the russian military is present on the outskirts of the city, this retreat, it has already begun, they just don't talk about it like they do about kursk. listen, well, i talked about this in may, that maybe ukraine will have to retreat from certain key points of defense in donetsk region, unfortunately, because i don't know who, who doesn't talk about it, but such risks existed, unfortunately, the general staff doesn't talk about it these days, it talks more about the fact that on kurshchyna, well no, well, i know that let’s say that if we look and open the messages of the general staff, there will always be information about the situation in the pokrovsky and toretsk directions, the commander-in-chief and not only the president also mentions it, no one did not forget these directions because... all the more no one can forget about people because it is very important. the second point, which concerns the situation in general, is that donetsk now, and the russian

troops stationed there, and the ukrainian defense operation, consist of the following: the ukrainian defense operation is reduced to simply grinding away any capabilities of the enemy, simply to weaken and simply to destroy as many enemy troops as possible, but donetsk is also, unfortunately, certain. problem, you know, like once upon a time one prominent commander said that you have a province or an army, and actually speaking, from the point of view of donetsk region, we can wage a war for donetsk region and risk losing the fighting capacity of our forces and achieving nothing if we hold on to all the lines, so we have to show a flexible departure and therefore an approach, and therefore a departure from some positions, it is justified, based on this situation, which... it is given today, everything will depend, you understand, further, i do not know how the situation in kurtskaya will develop oblast, if the offensive will stop at the fact

that it will be possible to surround the russian troops there now in the glushkiv district, it would be very powerful, because the enemy would get a cauldron, which was not initially a full-scale invasion, there are real prospects, but you can stop, there there there are real prospects for the creation of this cauldron, well, they are, so far we see that the ukrainian forces from... have focused on exhausting them and simply holding them, they just took it like a siege, but if they go further on the offensive, they these prospects are growing, they are, pantones, which russia threw were all destroyed, then russia is actively approaching, they are trying to throw pontoons, take out their own, they are conducting such a mini-dunker operation, in fact, only not on boats, but through these pontoons, our forces are concentrated there from two sides, because there and from the south they pressed in the area of ​​tyotkinaga from the territory of the sumy region and from the west. they are pressing, and as for the future, simply why i say, here is a recent message, which is a reference to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, he says that further actions will be

depend on operational development. it is difficult to say what the situation will be, but at the same time, if the active offensive actions in the kurshchyna are not continued, and we do not continue to take risks in order to further raise the stakes of our forces, then it is certain that certain forces can be used, well, it will require less reserves, it must be understood that the existing troops will most likely remain in kurshchyna, even in the sanitary zone mode, to repel possible... enemy counterattacks, which things, will lead to the fact that russia can get involved in hostilities and spend its ammunition, its forces, its resources, its means directly to try to knock us out of the kurdish region, but the future reserves that will be prepared, they can already spill over directly to donetsk region. oleksandr, i want to systematize a little bit what you said so that it would be more understandable for our audience, well, if we analyze the situation in kurshchyna, which are for the perspective, or continue

the offensive in depth, as far as i understand, the western the press recently wrote about this, that allegedly volodymyr zelensky is asking or demanding from the military leadership to continue the offensive, or, for example, to gain a foothold already in the captured territories and hold the defense there as long as necessary, or as long as the armed forces are able to maintain a certain sanitary or buffer zone, and looking at how many reserves there will be both on the ukrainian side and on the russian side, or as i understand it, maybe... a decision will be made to retreat in an organized manner in case there are risks of large losses, everything is plus or minus. look, i think, well, plus or minus, but i think that the ukrainian contingent will remain until the huge forces of the russian troops are withdrawn, and that is, from this point of view, what do we have to maintain the defense in this area in the sumy region, what do we get, here in principle, it

will not make a big difference if the enemy is from troops here, we will still have to keep our forces, because we will keep them either 15 km south or 15 km north, and ukrainian troops will still be present here. as for the offensive, the offensive is very risky, but maybe he has a point in it, because it is, let's say, a continuation of the offensive operation, it can create even more preconditions, under which putin will eventually be forced to go, just to throw more... from donetsk region, and this is the only way to get more forces, because if the offensive stops, it is clear that russia will transfer certain forces to this buffer zone, but it will be a gradual movement, this is how it should be understood, under the conditions of the first scenario, if we are actively advancing, we will have to understand that we will most likely have to withdraw from certain positions in donetsk region. oleksandr, i will interrupt you, because as soon as i see it, maryana bezugla

wrote in her telegram. that there was a meeting of the verkhovna rada committee there, and she said that ukrainian units are leaving donbas, leaving entire front lines to their own devices, they are not adding ammunition, no, and so on, well, that is , she is painting such a catastrophic picture, that's right previously, but partially you talked about it, that maybe the ukrainian troops will have to withdraw, i want to wait a minute longer to return to sumy oblast, you know, i have such a question, which is rather possible... lies in the moral and ethical plane, we do not know what the losses of the ukrainian army are now in sumy oblast, we do not know how the situation will develop further, but if you say , that the ukrainians will have to stay there, do you think, should the political leadership get a mandate or the consent of the society, so that the ukrainian troops continue to be there, because it is possible that it will be at a very high price, including the cost

of human losses, and this is not ukrainian territory. well, look, i can tell you that from what i know, as of today, ukrainian losses are much smaller than during the offensive actions in the south in 2023, this i can say for sure, in terms of losses, the movement takes place without thought, a stream of heads in advance, without taking into account the losses, if you look, the flanks are stabilized, the logistical lines of support are also under control, there is a certain air defense umbrella, not enough, of course, but it is not enough for... the whole of ukraine, not to mention, we cannot do everything air defense should be brought here because we understand that there are risks for others places and regions, both for the front and for the rear, therefore, strictly speaking, everything is happening quite, by the way, absolutely, i would say so, judiciously and quite rationally from the point of view of conducting offensive actions, and as for...