The commander of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Oleksandr Pavlyuk, says that some of the new units will be deployed to protect Kyiv.
Ukrainian army is creating 10 new brigades
The Economist writes that one of the most urgent tasks for the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Pavlyuk, is the preparation of ten new brigades to prepare for the offensive of the Russian army.
According to the general, part of the new forces will be deployed to protect Kyiv.
Pavlyuk said that two and a half years after the Russian army found itself at a dead end in the Kyiv region, it did not abandon its ambitions to finally take the capital.
The defence of Kyiv remains one of our main concerns, no matter how difficult things are in the east. This is the heart of Ukraine, and we know what a key role the protection of the capital will play in the future.
Oleksandr Pavlyuk
Commander of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
In an interview with The Economist, Pavlyuk emphasised that the main problem is a lack of equipment, not people.
He added that Ukraine desperately needs artillery and armored vehicles, which he hopes the West will provide.
The threat to Kyiv has changed
Pavlyuk says that the Russian threat is fundamentally different from the one at the beginning of a full-scale invasion.
According to him, the Russian army can no longer carry out large-scale attacks on several fronts. It uses missiles that were produced only weeks before the attacks, not those that were once in its vast stockpile.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are also much larger than they were, says the commander.
This story remains a strategic failure of Russia, he claims.
According to Ukrainian estimates, Russia lost more than 400,000 killed, captured and wounded.
Losing so many soldiers, the general says, "to capture a small part of one region is disproportionate to any rational mind". However, history has shown, he says, that Russia is not run by rational minds.
