Zelenskyy explains why Ukraine's Armed Forces have not moved all forces to southern front: that's what the Russians expect us to do

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has responded to criticism that Ukraine’s Armed Forces are allegedly concentrating their forces in the wrong places instead of where they should be during the ongoing counteroffensive.

Source: Zelenskyy during a press conference on 23 August 

Quote: "We have the East. Do any of the specialists realise how many people there are, how many invaders there are, in the east? About 200,000! Their proposal is this: let's take our Armed Forces away from there, and move them somewhere else. I don't want to say where, for example, where it is desirable for us, where we need them.

I think that in this case the situation will be as follows: a couple of days [to take - ed.] Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, then they [the invaders - ed.] will advance towards Pavlohrad, Dnipro, and cut us off from the river banks."

Details: According to the president, this is what the invaders are counting on. "We will not give up Kharkiv, Donbas, Pavlohrad or Dnipro. And that’s that. And let all the analysts in the world not even count on it," Zelenskyy said.

Previously: The New York Times, citing the opinion of US and other Western officials, said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not concentrating their forces where they should be during the counteroffensive, and advised that they change tactics.

Accordingly, US planners advised Ukraine to focus on the front in the Melitopol area, which is Kyiv's top priority, and on breaking through Russian minefields and other defences, even if Ukrainians lose more soldiers and equipment in the process.

Only with a change in tactics and a sharp transition can the pace of the counteroffensive be changed, US officials believe.

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