‘Prepare for your own war’: Top Ukrainian military chief’s stark warning to western allies about Putin
Russia is ready to “swallow” Europe whole, a top Ukrainian commander has warned – less than two months after he led a costly evacuation from a key city on the eastern frontline.
Speaking to The Independent from an undisclosed location in Donetsk, deputy commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, Maksym Zhorin, issued a troubling warning to Kyiv’s Western partners.
The West, he said, must urgently prepare. “Create serious defence systems that could counteract Russia because it will undoubtedly open its mouth and try to swallow the rest of Europe,” he warned.
It is the latest in a string of warnings from Ukrainian military and political figures that Russia will not stop with Ukraine. But it comes less than two months after Mr Zhorin helped lead a difficult evacuation from Avdiivka, the first Ukrainian city to be taken over by Russia since last May, in part because a recent lack of Western military support had left Ukrainian forces there at a significant disadvantage.
Mr Zhorin was part of the crack unit, one of the most valued in the Ukrainian army, that was called in at the last minute to evacuate hundreds of soldiers trapped in Avdiivka as Russian forces pushed to encircle it after months of fighting. Many were left behind, where they were later captured or killed, and Russian forces then rushed forward behind the retreating Ukrainian troops, taking several more towns in the process. Videos show Ukrainian soldiers mercilessly killed and left on the streets on the northwest outskirts of the city, which was the last remaining route back to Ukrainian-held land.
Mr Zhorin, more than most, knows the cost of an advancing Russia.
During his interview, the first with Western media since the fall of the city, Mr Zhorin was blunt about the reality of the eastern frontline while Western weapons supplies are delayed or simply being withheld – and he was frank about the future of European security.
A US military package worth roughly $60 billion has been in limbo in Washington for seven months, victim to squabbling politicians, while European partners have failed to send more than half of the million artillery shells they promised to Kyiv by this year, unable to agree on how to finance their production.
Hours after Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg announced a long-term proposal for a €100 billion military package to Ukraine this week – a step in the right direction for Kyiv – Mr Zhorin said that the pledge will help but it is, like all Western aid, coming too late.
Roughly seven weeks after Russia claimed Avdiivka, he says the situation has finally stabilised, with defences being held from villages west of Avdiivka including Tonenke, through Semenivka, up to Berydchi.
But the pressure remains, and it is fierce. He claims Russia is dropping between 40 and 60 powerful aerial bombs a day on their positions, while DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker, said on Thursday that Russia had “advanced” towards Berdychi and was “carrying out assaults in the direction of Semenvika”. Its map suggests Tonenke, meanwhile, is already under Russian control.
The term “stalemate” was taboo while Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive was ongoing last year as it suggested the attack was failing; now it’s a dangerous word for a different reason. Russia and Ukraine may be fighting a war of attrition, but it’s Vladimir Putin’s forces that are on the move.
“Of course, the situation would be a lot more difficult if we didn’t receive the aid at all, but ultimately the cost of hesitation is Ukrainian territory and Ukrainian lives,” Mr Zhorin said.
“The average Ukrainian infantryman is tired, exhausted by the dynamics of war, and by the events that have transpired. They are almost faint. Unfortunately, that is the truth.”
