Russia’s new campaign against Kyiv. Rhetoric of propagandists

Several defense lines with a length of almost a thousand kilometers were created around the Ukrainian capital.

Russian propagandists are again announcing the march of the occupying army to Kyiv. Bloomberg writes that Vladimir Putin has not abandoned his original goal of capturing large Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv and Odessa.

Expansionist rhetoric

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) notes that in recent months the Kremlin has continued to expand rhetoric that directly calls for the occupation and annexation of additional Ukrainian territory. Recently, Putin falsely claimed that Odessa was a “Russian city,” and other Russian officials have also used similar language in relation to the Dnieper, Kharkov, Nikolaev and Kyiv.

ISW believes that the Kremlin is deliberately creating such statements to avoid any restrictions on further expansion of Russia in Ukraine, so this rhetoric may be aimed at enabling Putin to develop new goals in the occupation of Ukraine when he sees fit. Recently, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that Russian troops are preparing for a new offensive, which will begin at the end of May or in the summer of 2024.

“I don’t know where to stop, I think that we will still have to work a lot and seriously. Will it be Kiev? Yes, maybe. It should be Kiev. If not now, after a while. Maybe something else. stage of development of the time of this “conflict”, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev dreamed in an interview with one of the propaganda publications.

Military expert Igor Romanenko said that Medvedev’s statement had a purely propaganda purpose: “We have known for a long time what they “want” even without Medvedev. Russia has not completely abandoned this idea . It can come to Kiev in a year or 10 years . We just have to be ready for it and strongly counter it. Therefore, our military is preparing for a possible re-attack in both the north and northeast directions . And Medvedev’s statements should be thought of as blatant and stupid propaganda – this is an attempt at moral and psychological pressure on Ukrainians, which is what Medvedev is doing.”

There is always a threat

“Kyiv has not been part of the combat zone for a long time. But these years of war have taught us the main thing – the enemy will not give up his plans to destroy Ukraine, and Kyiv will be the priority target of enemy No. 1,” said the head of the KGVA, Sergei Popko.

According to him, the intelligence is closely monitoring the forces and methods of the enemy in Belarus. Russian troops, aviation, and heavy equipment remain on the territory of Belarus, but in small numbers.

“Several defense lines with a length of about a thousand kilometers were created around Kyiv itself. And the first line of Kyiv is located quite far from the capital. Reliable systems for destroying enemy fire, all types of engineering obstacles, air defense and anti-tank, and comprehensive support have been built,” he said.

Bloomberg writes that according to Ukrainian intelligence estimates, Putin has not abandoned plans to occupy Odessa and Kyiv. If he were to capture Odessa, it would lead to blocking important grain export routes to the Black Sea and open access to Moldova, the agency said.

However, a major offensive would be problematic for the Kremlin, whose forces have been depleted after two years of war. However, Russia will make a decision based on the success of the current campaign, the publication’s source said.

The British edition of the Financial Times also wrote that the Russians will try to attack Kyiv again, citing sources in Western politicians.

“This offensive is unrealistic, for one simple reason – no one will carry it out. Near Kiev, in the direction of Kiev there are more mines than leaves on trees in summer. There, in for two years, the line of defense in the northern direction is being prepared. There are many messages about it and showed the fortresses, mines and so on, that is, the direction of Kiev is ready to repel this attack. Therefore , it is worth putting an end to it, because now there is no reason to believe that there will be an attack on Kyiv,” assured Ukrainian military observer Denis Popovich.