AFU Get Closer: Occupants In Crimea Start Final Preparations

• 31.07.2023, 13:25

In the coming weeks it will be much "hotter" in Crimea than it is now.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian Gauleiter of the occupied part of the Kherson region, has said that the AFU allegedly tried to destroy the railway between the left bank of the Kherson region and occupied Crimea on Friday night. He said the occupants had allegedly shot down all 12 Storm Shadow missiles fired at the Russian positions, resulting in "minor damage to the railway's bypass cabin and contact line". Information about the "successful" work of the Russian air defence forces is highly doubtful against the background of the constant "bavovna" in the region, but the trend is obvious - the AFU are tightening their fist around the peninsula. In the coming weeks, Crimea will be much "hotter" than it is now. This is what the well-known Ukrainian military expert Roman Svitan wrote in an article for Apostrophe.

It is pointless to believe the collaborator Saldo that the occupation's air defences have allegedly shot down all the missiles, but the trend is clear - constant attacks on the enemy's positions on the peninsula, their logistics, ammunition depots, oil depots and staging areas.

The so-called "head" of Crimea, Aksyonov, talks every day about the "successful work of the air defence", but his comments are becoming more and more cautious. While last year the occupation administration in Simferopol and Sevastopol emphasised in every possible way that the approach of the AFU to the peninsula, and even more so the entry of our forces into Crimea, would supposedly be the last "red line" for Moscow, now they lack such confidence.

All last week Crimea was in flames. There have been effective attacks on warehouses, bases and airfields. Drones have hit almost all the key points on the map - Armyansk, Old Crimea, Feodosia, Sevastopol, as well as Dzhankoy and Krasnogvardeysky districts. On the one hand, Aksyonov said that 'everything was under control' and that there were no threats. However, the occupants had to evacuate all settlements within a 5km radius of the detonation site, and traffic on the railway and the Dzhankoy-Simferopol highway in the Dzhankoy district was halted due to a rocket attack on an overcrowded depot.

Later on Wednesday, they began to "feel" Krasnoperekopsk and Sevastopol again, presumably working on the Russian positions in Cossack Bay, but then they gave no details. On the evening of 28 July, however, it was announced that the ammunition depot of the occupying forces had been destroyed.

"The 810th separate brigade of the naval infantry of the occupying forces is now deployed in the Cossack Bay area. It is known that the conducted sabotage caused explosions and detonations on the "temporary structure" of the ammunition of the Rashists," reported the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

The leadership of Ukraine's state security service has admitted that the situation in Crimea will soon be even 'hotter' than it is now. The head of the department, Kyrylo Budanov, said that Ukrainian troops could enter the peninsula in the foreseeable future. He refused to give a date for the de-occupation of the peninsula, but reiterated that it would happen soon.

Due to the constant threat to personnel and the detonation of ammunition depot, the occupying forces have to constantly move equipment around the peninsula. In Razdolne in north-western Crimea, where attacks took place in June and July, the occupants have dismantled their base and moved people and equipment deep into the region. Judging by the map of the attacks, they are hitting the occupants' logistics and bases, which are just behind the main Russian fortification they have built in the north of the peninsula at Armyansk.

The fortifications there are less developed than in the territory of the Zaporizhzhia region, but the occupiers continue to strengthen their positions on the territory of Krasnoperekopsk, Dzhankoy, Lenin districts, as well as on the Arabatskaya Strelka, which is used to transport equipment from Kerch to Melitopol.

As you know, since 1 August the occupants have banned civilian access to the Arabatskaya Strelka, claiming that they need to "locate the security threat" to the occupied Crimea. They have even set up an entire "operational headquarters", headed by Aksenov, which will issue permits to those civilians who wish to cross the Arabatskaya Strelka.

And even then, only representatives of the emergency services and civilian personnel involved in 'defence work' are allowed there.

At the same time, the military equipment of the occupying forces is constantly being moved around the region. This includes movement towards Simferopol.

This activation indicates that the Russian command is hastily preparing for the AFU advance in the Kherson region and the entry of our forces to the administrative borders with Crimea. Moreover, they do not have such serious fortifications there as in the Zaporizhzhia region or in the north of Crimea.

Such preparations by the occupants usually take place a month before the expected approach of enemy troops. Now they are making a fuss on the Arabatskaya Strelka, because their earlier expectation that the undermining of the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station would be able to limit the capabilities of our army for a long time has failed. The water is coming down and the ground is drying up. In a few days the ground will be dry enough to move heavy machinery.