MELITOPOL, June 6. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops will stage large-scale attacks at various sections of the combat engagement line to shift Russia’s attention from the main offensive it will launch in the Zaporozhye Region, Vladimir Rogov, leader of the We Are Together With Russia movement, told TASS on Tuesday.
"Now, I think, they will be attacking our forces along the entire combat engagement line. They are shelling both Artyomovsk and Kherson - preparing to cross the Dnieper, or just acting like they are. When we are maximally frustrated by the change of directions and attacks, Ukrainian troops will attack for real," he said, commenting on the June 4 and 5 attack by two Ukrainian brigades that was rebuffed near the village of Vremevka.
According to Rogov, Ukraine’s key forces are in reserve in the Zaporozhye area. "They used only the 23rd and 31st mechanized brigades, Polish units - yes, they are a strategic reserve of the Ukrainian army, but not the only one. Ukraine’s key forces are deployed here and I am sure they will attack from here. I think the offensive is most likely at the section between Orekhovoye and Gulyapole. Probably, they will move toward the Zaporozhye NPP via Vasilyevka and will cross the Dnieper," he said.
According to Rogov, Ukraine’s strikes on settlements located far from the combat engagement line, such as Berdyansk and Mariupol, can be seen in the context of the above-mentioned scenario.
The Russian defense ministry said on Monday evening that units of the battlegroup East had stopped Ukraine’s offensive on the Vremevka protrusion in the southern Donetsk Region, which had begun on June 4. Up to 1,500 Ukrainian troops were neutralized, 28 tanks and 109 armored combat vehicles were destroyed.
On May 27, Rogov told TASS that the danger remained high that the Ukrainian army would stage an offensive in the Zaporozhye Region, where up to 65,000 troops had been deployed. A similarly large contingent, in his words, has been deployed to the cities of Zaporozhye and Dnepr (formerly known as Dnepropetrovsk). He anticipated that Ukraine’s army would opt for the Zaporozhye direction as Ukraine sought to seize the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and reach the Sea of Azov to block the land corridor to Crimea.