08.03.2022, Moscow.
Ukrainian nationalist battalions refuse to evacuate the civilian population, and, in fact, use them as a human shield, said political analyst Sergey Kurginyan on March 6 on the air of the program The Great Game on Channel One.
“In the city of Mariupol, for example, Ukrainian nationalists categorically refused to set up a humanitarian corridor, and, frankly, I almost certainly do not recall any examples throughout the history of wars when the civilian population was so brazenly denied an exit. They directly say that ‘as soon as the civilian population is withdrawn, military pressure will increase, and we do not want this!’ It means that they are just hostages, they are a human shield,” said Kurginyan.
In regards to regular military tactics, a first stage of the special military operation that Russia implements in Donbass has been completed, and now it switches to urban guerrilla tactics, explained the political scientist..
“From my point of view, the military operation has been completed in its regular form. Now, everything is broken down into several besieged areas, which is the tactical objective of the operation,” said Kurginyan.
It takes more time for completing a military operation if you use urban guerrilla tactics, since there is a high probability of big losses among both the military and the civilian population, stressed the expert.
“The amount of time spent on the operation is inversely proportional to the number of casualties on our side and the number of casualties among the civilian population. Therefore, the pace of the special operation seems to me quite appropriate. The only question is what’s the best way to fight the urban guerrilla war. There, inside these urban areas where our adversaries had settled … we must understand that there will be casualties,” said Kurginyan.
The political scientist points to the fact that simply surrounding the cities and besieging them will not yield any result, because Ukrainian nationalists and Western countries supporting them will begin to accuse Russia of causing a major humanitarian crisis.
“Even if we just surround them and wait, it is also dangerous, you never know what to expect from this menacing Western machine… Then, they will start accusing us of starving, and freezing them to death, or something else. People who had lost their minds and realized that they are losing their power which they thought was absolute, will always blame others,” said Kurginyan.
On March 5, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced a ceasefire starting at 10:00 am Moscow time, and opened humanitarian corridors near the city of Mariupol and Volnovakha for evacuating the civilians. However, Ukrainian nationalists disrupted the evacuation along the humanitarian corridors. The failure to evacuate was reported by representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
