July 23, 2022
By Olena Skomoroshchenko
Head of SDPU Secretariat,
International Secretary
One hundred and fiftieth day of the War
A couple of days ago, the General Staff of Ukraine stated that the front had stabilized. In fact, this is a message that the enemy has stopped advancing and the General Staff is going to switch from defense to offensive. The war is at its zenith, the enemy has reached his maximum and even if he advances a little in some direction, he will no longer be able to advance on a large scale, as was the case on Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. Because the offensive potential has been exhausted, and there are no reserves. The maximum demonstrated by the enemy is the ability to replenish current losses. This is a decisive turning point in the war.
Everything else remains as it was. The border areas of Chernihiv and Sumy regions are mercilessly bombarded - every day there is destruction, wounded and dead. The Kharkiv region is one of the most painful epicenters of the war - the city is brutally bombed on a constant basis - mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. Yesterday, two residential buildings and a higher educational institution were destroyed, injured and killed. There are still two points of hostilities in the region - north of Kharkiv and in the direction of Izyum. In the north, our troops are trying to reach the state border with the Russian Federation, primarily with the aim of pushing the front away from Kharkiv and removing it from at least barrel artillery fire. Well, and to liberate our people and settlements from the hell of occupation. The situation here has stabilized at the level of positional battles - the sides exchange assault actions, but this has no effect on the territories controlled by them - the positions do not change. They do not allow us to advance to the border, we do not allow them to advance to Kharkiv.
The same is the case in the Izyum direction, in the direction from north to south, from Izyum to Sloviansk. The same in the sense that the belligerents also remain in their positions. This does not mean that nothing is happening there, because in fact there is fierce fighting going on there. It's just that none of the parties allows the other to move forward. As you remember, it was in this direction that on April 4, the second phase of the war was launched in the form of a grand and victorious offensive, which resulted in an advance 20 km from Izyum, where everything stopped and is still standing there, despite the fierce battles. Therefore, the attack on Sloviansk is no longer coming from the north, from the Kharkiv region, but from the east, from Luhansk, where the enemy was more successful, because there he concentrated almost all his forces and reserves.
It is here today that the sharpest epicenter of the War and the greatest successes of the enemy are. The entire Luhansk region, except for the only occupied point, Verkhnokamyanka, is under temporary occupation, and fierce battles are taking place for Verkhnokamyanka. However, the fiercest battles are currently taking place in the direction of Siversk and Bakhmut. It is through Siversk that they hope to reach Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, but all military authorities, both Ukrainian and foreign, express doubt that they will succeed. Although they do not rule out a slight advance of the enemy in this area. But around Kramatorsk and Sloviansk over these 8 years, too powerful a defense was built to break through it with the available enemy forces.
This is - at the bottom, at the bottom of this district - Avdiyivka, Maryanka and Vugledar - the same fierce confrontation, which, however, does not lead to any changes. They are desperately trying to take the Vuzlehirskaya TPP - they love our civil infrastructure facilities of critical support - and so far with the same success.
The situation near Zaporizhzhya is not so tense - battles are also taking place, but there are no bright events here. If you do not count the merciless and continuous bombardment of Nikopol, which is located on the other side of the reservoir, just opposite the occupied Energodar, for more than a week. Unfortunately, these are no longer episodic bombings, but a system, as the occupiers are doing it in relation to the border areas of Chernihiv and Sumy regions, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv. Today, for the first time, Kropyvnytskyi, a regional center in the center of Ukraine, was completely bombed at the dawn, just like the recent shelling of Vinnytsia. A lot of destruction, wounded and dead.
On the positive side, a couple of days ago our paratroopers made a sortie on Zmiiny Island. They demined the territory, collected enemy equipment and documents that were thrown away by the occupiers while fleeing. But the main thing is that they took out a local cat, which spent these almost 5 months in the occupation and it is not known what it ate. This is a very young cat, completely black in color, which immediately became the favorite of the country. Everyone is happy for the little animal, who will not starve now - he has a military master who will now take care of him.
The release of Zmiiny has a strategic importance in many respects, in particular, because now it is impossible to reach Odesa, but it is possible to unblock part of the Black Sea water area, which can be used to organize the export of grain in order to prevent a world hunger crisis. Therefore, two Agreements were signed yesterday in Istanbul. One is between Ukraine, Turkey and the UN about the unblocking of Ukrainian ports and the export of Ukrainian grain, the second is between the Russian Federation, Turkey and the UN about the same. According to these Agreements, the unblocking of three Ukrainian ports - Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhnoy - is foreseen. So what? Lest you doubt, this morning the port of Odessa was seriously shelled and suffered significant destruction. When asked by the Turkish side what it is and how to understand it, Muscovy's answer is that it's not us, we don't know anything, apparently it's the Ukrainians who are firing at themselves, they have such a civil war. This is so that you understand who we are dealing with. The legal and ethical Code of this civilization does not provide for the fulfillment of contracts and keeping one's word, because according to it this there is weakness. In this civilization, there is no concept of honor, only Power. And Power implies treachery and the inevitable deception of the enemy. We in Ukraine have understood this for three centuries, during which they try to destroy us every 50 years. And the whole world, I hope, has finally gotten to know them and will understand that dealing with Muscovites and negotiating something with them is a deep disrespect for oneself.
But there is also good news. Despite the lack of weapons necessary for a counteroffensive, actions began to liberate the Kherson region and Kherson itself. The fact is that this is the only place where the enemy has gained a foothold on the right bank of the Dnipro and therefore needs vital communication with its forces on the left bank, because all the support for the presence of the Russian Federation on the right bank comes from there - shells, equipment, fuel, food, support. There are only two bridges over the Dnipro here - the Antoniv bridge near Kherson and the bridge near the dam in Nova Kakhovka. The bridge in Nova Kakhovka is vital for both sides, because it is inextricably linked to the dam, the destruction of which is dangerous for both sides. And Antonivsky Bridge is closer to Kherson. In short, our Armed Forces shelled this bridge two days ago and continued to shell it all this time. This is a kind of hint - get out from here, that is, from the right bank, away, while you can still cross the bridge and not get surrounded. Because now its condition is such that heavy equipment can no longer move on it, but only light cars and people on foot. Moreover, in the north of the region, near the village of Visokopylla, the enemy group is semi-encircled, and some experts say that there are two more prospects for a similar encirclement - in the area of Davydiv Brid and south of it. About a thousand enemy paratroopers were surrounded in Visokopyllia, who were supposed to advance and storm Kryvyi Rih, and they understood their situation so well that they demanded an emergency procedure. Well, like our defenders of Azovstal in May. I suspect that the same will happen to them as to the defenders of Azovstal. Weapons for the offensive are very necessary - tanks and airplanes, because the people of Kherson and the entire region, and not only Kherson, but all the occupied territories are waiting for liberation.
Everything will be Ukraine!