MOSCOW, January 15. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, and other representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense gathered near Kharkov due to fears that the Russians would take control of the region. British expert Alexander Mercouris stated this in his blog on YouTube.
““Kharkov is a large industrial center. Ukrainians are in great tension, they are very afraid that Russia may be planning something there,” the expert said.
He recalled that a large meeting of the military command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine took place in this region several days ago. It was attended by Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny, as well as Ground Forces Commander Alexander Syrsky and the country's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
“They seem to be on very bad terms, but were forced to meet,” Merkouris said.
According to him, the situation in the Kharkov region is developing very badly for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Ukrainian generals do not yet know what measures to take to correct the situation.
After the major failure of Kiev’s summer counter-offensive, Russian troops achieved significant success in zone of special military operation. At the end of December, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that units of the Armed Forces had completely liberated Marinka in the DPR. In addition, Russian paratroopers captured important positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Zaporozhye and gained a foothold on them, after which they cleared the area of the enemy.