Summary of the daily livestream with Aleksey Arestovych, kindly brought to you by Anastasiya: @Anastasiya1451A
English voice-over video by Privateer Station:
Original video in Russian:
Battlefield update:
No major changes in the battlefield.
🔥Lyman-Svatove
🇷🇺 sources report that AFU continues its counteroffensive attempting to liberate Lyman from the 🇷🇺 occupation and targeting a couple of other places.
🇷🇺 is trying to concentrate their defences around Svatove, which is a key logistical centre and military defence centre to the whole Northern Lugansk region. 🇷🇺 is feverishly searching for and transferring reinforcement to currently understaffed Svatove defence, attempting to urgently prepare 2nd and 3rd line of defences in case if Lyman falls. This includes transferring anything from the small groups to 3-4 BTGs from the South to reinforce Svatove’s direction.
The two & half 🇷🇺 battalions are heroically holding in the occupied Lyman until the last soldier to buy time for the 🇷🇺 army to form 2nd line of defences in from Rubizhne towards Svatove. The fall of Lyman will be catastrophic for the 🇷🇺 troops in the area.
Bahmut
No major changes in Bahmut direction. The 🇷🇺 army cannot make any significant advances and AFU does not give details on current operations.
🔥Kherson
🇷🇺 started to use helicopters to resupply their troops in Kherson, which is the most expensive, ineffective and risky way to transfer supplies to the frontline.
The 🇷🇺 missile attack on Karachun dam, near Kryvyi Rih, was not just a strike on critical civilian infrastructure but also an attempt by 🇷🇺 to delay AFU advance. 🇷🇺 intended to damage 🇺🇦 pontoons over river Ingulets and to slow down the 🇺🇦 advance. This shows that the 🇷🇺 command is fearing the 🇺🇦 counteroffensive in Kherson.
🇷🇺 troops in the temporarily-occupied Kherson region should expect troubles in 4 places as AFU intends to cut the 🇷🇺 host in pieces and eliminate 🇷🇺 presence West of the Dnipro River.
President Zelensky’s visit to the frontline
President Zelensky has visited the AFU in the recently liberated Izyum to boost morale and award the 🇺🇦 soldiers. The Zelensky’s numerous trips to the front, including the risky visit to Severodonetsk earlier, are in strike contrast to Putin’s self-exile to the bunker and systematic avoidance of his own troops.
The fragility of Putin’s image
Putin’s carefully constructed image of a macho and a “strong man” would not survive an unedited, real-life meeting with the troops. Even his press team, official photographers and propagandists cannot hide his aging and a total disconnect, mental and psychological, from the common Russians and 🇷🇺 soldiers.
The direct contact with the 🇷🇺 troops would shatter Putin’s image and disillusion his followers. Thus, Putin also fears the assassination attempts from his own men more than from 🇺🇦 drones.
Armenia vs Azerbaijan
🇦🇲 requested support from CSTO but its request was rejected. This is a major betrayal from Moscow, as 🇷🇺 has most certainly made an agreement with 🇹🇷 to let Turkey’s ally, Azerbaijan, to capture Nagorny-Karabah in exchange of Erdogan’s mediation in the grain deal.
Another objective of the Kremlin is to replace Pashinyan with a pro-🇷🇺 alternative and turn Armenia into a completely dependent 🇷🇺 puppet-state. Arestovych and Feygin are calling for a pacific resolution of the 🇦🇿-🇦🇲 conflict and are urging Armenia to avoid falling under 🇷🇺 control and losing its sovereignty.
Scholz-Putin phone call
In the 90min phone call, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged 🇷🇺 to leave all the 🇺🇦 territories in an almost ultimatum to Putin. This call is following the successful 🇺🇦 counteroffensive in Kharkiv. Macron’s phone conversation with Putin and the European Commission’s support of 🇺🇦.
Macron’s and Scholz’s demands of the complete 🇷🇺 troops withdrawal from 🇺🇦 are an attempt to have a controlled process of 🇷🇺 defeat and are trying to show Putin the way out of this war that doesn’t end in complete catastrophe for 🇷🇺.
🇷🇺 as a country of sponsor of terrorism
Despite 🇷🇺 attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, 🇺🇲 stated that they don’t want to declare 🇷🇺 as a country sponsor of terrorism to avoid damaging some allies that could be targeted via secondary sanctions.
Wagner mercenary group recruiting in 🇷🇺 prisons
Prigozhin is actively and openly recruiting able-bodied prisoners for the mercenary company Wagner, regardless of their previous military experience or crimes committed. He is proposing prisoners join his mercenary company on a 6-month contract, absolving them of their crimes regardless of their sentence length or the severity of the crime committed.
The prisoners are to be used as infantry units for the frontal attacks. The deserters would be shot on the spot.
In the context of modern warfare, the recruited criminals do not present a substantial military force, many lacking any military experience.
🇷🇺 resorting to recruitment of prisoners and circumvention of its own legal system is yet another symptom of a complete moral & societal degradation – the once mighty 🇷🇺 empire has completely rotten under Putin’s rule.
