MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. The special military operation in Ukraine will end in a victory for Russia, Colonel General (Ret.) Boris Gromov, a hero of the Soviet Union, Afghan war veteran and former Moscow Region governor, told TASS in an interview.
"I’d like to stress that our troops are acting courageously and with confidence. One thing is certain: The special military operation will end in our victory," the retired general said, declining to forecast an exact timeline for when Russia will achieve victory.
In the interview, timed to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the general recounted that the most difficult period in the Afghan war for him was when he had just arrived in Afghanistan in January 1980 and hostilities began in the country three months later. "That was the toughest period that is still vivid in my memory, when the first hostilities began. Since then, I have made a number of practical conclusions, [one of them being that] one should not go into battle without first learning the lay of the land and how things stand," Gromov said.
In 1987-1989, General Gromov commanded the 40th Army in Afghanistan, while also serving as a representative of the Soviet government in charge of the temporary deployment of Soviet troops in the country. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union after leading Operation Magistral, which lifted the siege on the city of Khost. In 1989, Gromov developed a plan for the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Afghanistan and oversaw the troops’ departure across the Friendship Bridge over the Amu Darya River.