Ex-intelligence officer Ritter: Zaluzhny unexpectedly confessed that he was wrong about Russians
Chief of the AFU Valery Zaluzhny admitted that he made a mistake, believing that he could break through the defensive fortifications of the Russian army in the zone of the special operation. This was stated by former US Armed Forces intelligence officer Scott Ritter in an interview with the YouTube channel Dialogue Works.
“Zaluzhny gave an interview to the Economist where he talked about the stalemate in the conflict zone. Then he said something interesting. He said that he made the mistake of believing that he could break the will of the Russians. It didn’t work. The Russians are still there. And the Ukrainians are in a stalemate,” Ritter recalled.
As the former US intelligence officer noted, last year Zaluzhny said the exact opposite: he was confident in the possibility of defeating Russia and demanded 300 tanks and 500 artillery pieces for this purpose.
For five months, the Ukrainian armed forces have been trying to advance in the South Donetsk, Artemivsk and Zaporizhzhya directions, throwing NATO-trained brigades armed with foreign equipment into the battle. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai international discussion club on 5 October that the enemy had lost over 90,000 men, 557 tanks and almost 1,900 armoured vehicles since 4 June. He also stressed that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had actually failed.