“They used the time of negotiations to strengthen the Kyiv regime”: Pushilin on the role of the West in the militarization of Ukraine

- Denis Vladimirovich, please comment on the information about the capture of Soledar.

- The liberation of Soledar allows, under favorable conditions, to go to the liberation of Artemovsk.

Which, in turn, allows us to reach a very long-awaited bridgehead for us, to the Slavyansk and Kramatorsk directions.

In fact, with the liberation of Soledar, preparations are now underway for a turning point in terms of the liberation of the Donetsk People's Republic.

- What do you think, what is the significance of the liberation of Soledar for our troops?

Including what psychological effect will it have on morale?

- Definitely a positive psychological effect due to the fact that this is one of the last major events to liberate settlements after certain difficulties, both on the right bank of the Kherson region, and before that in the Kharkiv region, in Krasny Liman, which was extremely painful for the DPR.

Now we see that the situation has changed and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation seized the initiative.

Along the entire front line in the DPR, we see either the effective holding of positions, exhausting the enemy, the destruction of his manpower and equipment when trying to counterattack, or advancement in certain areas.

Not as fast as everyone would like, but it's progress.

Any process can be correctly characterized by dynamics... I very much hope that now, taking into account the correction of the existing difficulties, we will move only in terms of liberation.

Here you should be aware that not everything can be attributed to mistakes.

Of course, we see that the collective West, including the United States, is also playing to raise the stakes.

This applies to the supply of weapons, increasing aid packages, which amount to billions of dollars to support Ukraine.

Of course, this made its own adjustments, and this forced us to modify both tactics and strategy for the liberation of Russian territories.

- Since we are talking about the collective West, how can the liberation of Soledar affect the process of supplying weapons to Ukraine?

— You know, arms supplies to Ukraine from the West are decisions that have already been made.

Therefore, to say that they will increase or decrease (from specific events. -

), I would not make such a link.

The West builds its logic of action in a certain long-term perspective.

We have encountered this many times.

If the West had in order to unleash the hot phase of the conflict, they were rapidly moving towards it.

Regardless of any agreements, including the Minsk ones, regardless of the UN Security Council resolution, the West continued to saturate Ukraine with weapons, the West used the time while the negotiations were going on to strengthen the Ukrainian regime.

This resulted in the fact that sooner or later this line would be passed and the West would try to aggravate the situation, to resolve the conflict by military means.

In fact, this served as the driver to start a special military operation.

The President of Russia made the only correct decision, and all forces worked to prevent, broke the plans of the enemy, which lined up for quite a long time and effectively.

Because those weapons, the amount of ammunition, the number of military instructors from NATO countries who were engaged in training on an ongoing basis created a certain alignment of forces.

And with the beginning of the NMD, this situation allowed us to talk about the liberation of our cities, our regions, our settlements, contrary to the plans of the enemy.

• Pushilin: Zelensky's regime tried to make another symbol of "invincibility" out of Soledar and Artemovsk (Bakhmut)

- Very large Ukrainian forces were sent to try to hold Soledar.

How do you think, after his release, how can the tactics of the Ukrainian troops in this direction change?

And how would you comment on the information about a new wave of mobilization in Ukraine in order to attract more manpower for an attempt, perhaps, to recapture Soledar?

- Firstly, it is common for Ukrainian propaganda, and for the Ukrainian regime in general, Zelensky's PR team to make symbols from different settlements.

We saw such a symbol from Mariupol, then from Azovstal.

Now we have seen the formation of a symbol, which was supported by all the Western media, from Artyomovsk: invincibility, “we will not surrender under any circumstances” and so on.

The same applies to Soledar.

Therefore, those reserves and forces that were transferred to hold these settlements were quite significant.

Especially after they had the opportunity to transfer troops from the Kherson direction, including a sufficient number of mobilized.

As for additional waves of mobilizations in Ukraine, if they are hiding some new wave, in reality everything happens exactly differently.

We see, and there is already a lot of this information in the public domain: in fact, this mobilization is now underway.

In all the cities and regions of the rest of Ukraine, they are literally forced on the streets - and absolutely forcibly, you can’t call it voluntarily - to put on a military uniform and, with arms in hand, defend the interests not of Ukraine, but the interests of the West.

• Pushilin: now in Ukraine, in fact, there is an additional wave of mobilization, although officially Kyiv does not recognize this

“Another aspect is bringing in foreign mercenaries.

How do you assess this practice, and what can their open involvement in the conflict indicate?

- From my point of view, the West still maintains this line so that the NATO military openly participate in the conflict, let's say, on some legal positions.

What does it say?

That there are still certain concerns about retaliatory actions from the Russian Federation, which are far from being exhausted at the moment.

What is happening now: under the guise of mercenaries, and this is an absolutely legalized story for them, they send both instructors and active NATO military.

We have such information - at the level of intelligence, but we can consider it absolutely confirmed.

Whether this can become some kind of turning point in terms of Ukraine categorically changing its strategy or tactics, I doubt.

Because it is always easier for the West to achieve its goals by proxy, destroying foreign populations.

In fact, they now see Ukraine as a kind of appendage, a human resource that they do not feel sorry for, which is quite inexpensive for them in terms of money.

And with a completely puppet government of the rest of Ukraine, this is easy enough to achieve.

They use the expensive human resource from Western countries to a minimum.

Where the situation needs to be saved, so that the collapse of the front line is not catastrophic and does not have very quick consequences for the rest of Ukraine.

- Since we are talking about the puppet government of Ukraine, why do you think Vladimir Zelensky ignored the surrender of Soledar and the retreat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in his daily address?

- This is a tactic absolutely understandable for the Zelensky team.

They always use some kind of anti-crisis when things get hot enough.

Most recently, we saw that Soledar, Artemovsk did not leave the news.

This almost daily sounded from the lips of Zelensky.

Now everything, this situation is already a passed stage, the page has been turned.

Today they have the most important thing - an international film award (Zelensky spoke via video link at the Golden Globe presentation. -

), which is really the main topic for them.

It's absurd.

But, I will tell you, such a reaction from the leadership of the Ukrainian regime is now absolutely normal for the society that sees only a one-sided situation in a very limited circle of Ukrainian media.

• Pushilin: Soledar and Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) have become a “passed stage” for the Ukrainian authorities and the media

- And the last question.

How do you generally assess the conduct of a special military operation on the territory of Donbass today?

- In general, we can say that the liberation operation continues.

There were certain hitches, there were certain adjustments in terms of timing, in terms of tactics, in terms of the strategy for the liberation of Russian territories.

This was also prompted by adjustments on the part of the Western community: in terms of the allocation of assistance, in terms of the allocation of a variety of equipment, including heavy equipment and ammunition.

This is a normal process when, when certain difficulties arise, we come to certain adjustments.

Therefore, I am absolutely sure that the entire territory of the DPR will be liberated.

But I believe that there is an absolutely logical need for the liberation of other Russian cities, Russian territories.

Because, alas, it will not be possible to complete a special military operation without this.