About collaborators, partisans, Erdogan and Azerbaijan on the fronts of Ukraine

The war in Ukraine, as well as contradictory messages coming from there are closely watched and discussed in Azerbaijan. Ukrainian sources report a successful attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kherson, the Russians deny it, but what is really happening? Has the large-scale counter-offensive of the Ukrainian army, which military experts predicted for the fall begun?

The Ukrainian diplomat and public figure, international lawyer Vadim Tryukhan answers these and other question from Turan.

- Is it possible to describe an objective picture of what is happening now on the Kherson front. The Azerbaijani media publishes information about the attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the broken line of defense of the Russians, the flight of Russian paratroopers ...

- Only the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President of Ukraine Zelensky and the commander of the armed forces of Ukraine, General Zaluzhny know the real situation in the Kherson direction. Any messages from journalists, bloggers, and others do not reflect  real state of affairs at the front. Therefore, it is necessary to wait for the official information of the Ukrainian authorized persons, and then  make conclusions.

From a military-political point of view, everything is obvious. Ukraine has finally received a sufficient number of HIMARS-type MLRS, long-range artillery and other offensive military equipment from our de facto allies and partners, and for several weeks has been systematically and consistently attacking Russian armed forces  and is trying to deprive the Rashists (as the Russian military is called in Ukraine - ed.) of the opportunity to replenish ammunition and receive reserves in the form of armored vehicles, artillery and manpower.  Therefore, all three bridges near Kherson and dozens of military depots were destroyed.

The issue of the physical liberation of Kherson and the entire Kherson region  has been settled, and it doesn't matter if it takes a few days or a few weeks. It is important that Russia is no longer able to carry out any offensive operations in the South of Ukraine, it is no longer able to hold the temporarily occupied territories.

All that the Russian so-called "world-second  army in the world"  is capable,  is shelling peaceful cities and villages, aiming at civilian infrastructure and civilians. Russia  is using old Soviet weapons, some of which have long been removed  from production, but also decommissioned as unsuitable for use by the troops.

Do not pay attention to what Russian propaganda says. Rashist propagandists are trying to  conceal reality  deceiving both their  tribesmen and the whole world.

- There is a collaborating population in Ukraine. Part of the citizens of Ukraine went over to the side of the Russian Federation in the Crimea, Lugansk and Donetsk regions,  and in Kherson. What will happen to these people after the liberation of all territories from the Russian Armed Forces?

- Surprisingly, there was no mass transition of officials, or employees of local self-government  to the side of Russia. Ten mayors for such a large country is a drop in the sea. No soldiers were reported at all. There were cases that concerned the law enforcement system, but even here we can’t talk about mass character.

What does it  mean? First, Russia's propaganda machine has failed. In 2014, the citizens of Ukraine in the Crimea and in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions believed the Kremlin storytellers, but after eight years of war in the Donbass people developed an antidote, which made it possible to block the propaganda and promises of the "mountains of gold" from Russian Gauleiters.

In the first days of the invasion,  even  unarmed people  went out against columns of Russian armored vehicles, for example, in Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk and many other settlements in Ukraine. Russians are clearly introduced into a stupor. Indeed, in the Russian Federation, the state machine has long suppressed the will of its own plebs to any protest actions. There, one policeman with a baton can drive dozens of “poor” tribesmen, who dare to protest against the authorities. In Ukraine, one farmer or engineer can go out with his bare hands against tanks.

And besides, it should be noted that in any war, collaborators become part of the people who are not satisfied with their position in their country or sympathize with the enemy. By the way, in the same Russian Federation, during the Second World War, in addition to millions of collaborators, an entire Russian liberation army was created under the leadership of General Vlasov, which fought on the side of Hitler.  It involved  than 100 thousand people.

In Ukraine, there have never been the scale of collaborationism, familiar to Russia,   and never will be. Moreover, in the temporarily occupied territories there are many partisan detachments that, in addition to countering the Russian occupiers, punish collaborators. The last case was  two days ago - the death of a traitor, a former people's deputy, Alexei Kovalkov, together with his cohabitant in the Kherson region.

- The European anti-Putin front is cracking. Germany and France do not want to ban visas to Russians. They talk about a winter, cold test for Europe, after which the European countries will break down and stop supporting Ukraine. On the other hand, Western democracies depend on the will of the electorate. Does Kyiv have another option in case the West relaxes or withdraws from sanctions, under the pressure of economic and fuel circumstances?

- On the contrary, there has never been such a level of consolidation of the West, in the face of Putin's Russian aggression against all of Europe, including Ukraine. The European Union and its member states allocate billions of euros to help Ukraine. For the first time in its history, the EU began to purchase weapons for Ukraine, previously even such an idea would have been considered a utopia. Now it is reality.

The military assistance of the United State to Ukraine during the 6 months of the war,  totaled more than 10 billion dollars, and  August 24, the Independence Day of Ukraine,  allocated  additional package for another 3 billion dollars.

The UK has already provided more than $4 billion of military aid and has publicly stated that it will continue to provide Ukraine with as much military equipment and ammunition as Ukraine needs until its victory.

Similarly, Poland, which has already spent more than $3 billion, and Germany - more than $2 billion; and on August 24, Chancellor Scholz announced the next $500 million package, and so on.

Even such small countries as Luxembourg and Estonia transfer military equipment and ammunition to Ukraine. At the same time, the same Estonia has already spent a third of its military budget for these purposes.

So there is absolutely no reason to say that the West has “broken” or “will break”. Moreover, polls among US and EU citizens show that a stable majority of people support providing Ukraine with even more substantial military assistance. This gives hope, because it is common knowledge that in a democratic world, politicians listen to public opinion in their country.

As for visas,  there talk is not about  blocking the opportunity for those Russians who do not support Putin's policies to communicate with foreign countries. In my opinion, a compromise on this issue will be found, and a decision will be made in the coming days. At least the Czech Republic, which is now the President of the EU, is doing everything necessary to reach a compromise.

The approaching winter really promises to be unprecedentedly difficult, especially for Ukraine, primarily for those regions  which are being  subjected to attacks of rashist missiles and artillery, because nothing is sacred for the Russians, and they will systematically and purposefully  destroy public infrastructure of our cities and towns.

Nevertheless, both Ukraine and Europe, no matter how difficult it is, will cope with this challenge. Over the past 20 years, we have already experienced two gas wars in Europe, which were organized by Moscow, through the hands of its "Gazprom". True, at that time there were not rockets over the heads of civilians. I am sure that this winter will be the last hard winter for Ukraine and the entire continent. There  are not any more naive Russophiles  in Ukraine or in Europe who still believe in the reliability of Russia as a supplier of gas or any other type of fuel. An alternative will be found. At the same time, both we and the Europeans have been working on this for several months. For example, just the other day it became known that Norway allocated 200 million dollars for the purchase of gas for Ukraine. I think our other partners will also help,  and we hope  for supplies from Azerbaijan.

- How do you assess the role of Erdogan in relations between Moscow and Kyiv? Turkey gives Ukrainians modern weapons, at the same time Turkey trades with the Russian Federation as much as possible and started payments in  rubles, Erdogan behaves like a confidant of Putin.

- Turkey is one of the few countries in our region that  did not gain from the war,  and at least did not lose much. At least for now. In fact,  Turkey managed to keep afloat all the big projects started with Russia, including the ongoing construction of a nuclear power plant in Akkuyu on favorable terms for Turkey.

At the same time, Turkey has taken a  consistent position regarding Ukraine and its territorial integrity, namely, Ankara  supports ending the war and restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.  On February  28, Ankara closed the Bosporus and the Dardanelles to Russian warships, as a result of which Moscow is unable to make up for the losses of the Black Sea Fleet.  In April this year, Ukraine, with the help of Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles, sank the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet missile cruiser "Moskva".  In addition, another 14 other ships went to the bottom. Not a single fleet has had such losses since the Second World War. In recent months, Russian ships have been behaving like pirates, occasionally making forays into the sea and carrying out rocket attacks with “Kalibr” missiles against peaceful cities in Ukraine. But they no longer risk approaching Odessa, fearing to be sunk.

Turkey provides Ukraine with military assistance. First of all, these are the legendary "Bayraktars." But cooperation is not limited to this. From what is known publicly, just a couple of weeks ago, about 50 first-class modern "Kirpi" armored vehicles came from Turkey, and about a hundred more are expected. There are also negotiations in other areas.

Does Erdogan have a chance to become the mediator between Moscow and Kyiv who can help end the war? This is a rather difficult question. The fact is that at the moment neither Putin nor Ukraine are ready for negotiations. The reason is obvious. Putin wants to freeze the situation on the front line by trying to pull off the “Minsk agreements” scam, as he already did in September 2014 and February 2015, in order to occupy the new territories of Ukraine, which  were  temporarily occupied after February 24, 2022 of the year. At the same time, Ukraine insists on the complete liberation of all territories that have been under occupation since 2014.

Can Erdogan persuade Putin or the Ukrainian people to change their stance? I don't think. In fact, now the main negotiator is the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which successfully crush the enemy. If we return to the first question, we can say that the Armed Forces of Ukraine terrify the Russians in the Kherson region. At the moment, about 48 thousand Russian soldiers and officers, including 10 generals, and about 12,500 pieces of military equipment have already been destroyed, including the mentioned "Moskva" missile cruiser, the latest "Su-35" aircraft and "Ka-52",  "Alligator" helicopters; in  general, more than 430 aircraft and helicopters, tanks, multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), and others have already been destroyed.

- A similar question about Azerbaijan. With some help from Baku to Ukraine, our country does not conflict with the Russian Federation, but develops economic relations, while declaring the territorial integrity of Ukraine within internationally recognized borders. Is it duplicity, deceit, betrayal? How do Ukrainians understand such a policy?

 - Ukraine and Azerbaijan are strategic partners. Ukrainians highly appreciate the fact that Azerbaijanis send significant amounts of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and also host our citizens who are forced to flee the war from those regions of our country where there are fierce clashes with the Russians.

However, I think it's time to make a decision. Azerbaijan can do much more for Ukraine. Especially before the approaching hard winter and at a time when decisive battles begin in Ukraine in the South and East of our country. Any military assistance, as well as deliveries of energy carriers and oil products, are timely. In addition, I would like to see Azerbaijan in Ramstein on September 8, where representatives of more than 50 countries will gather under the chairmanship of US Secretary of Defense Austin to discuss further steps to counter Putin's Russia, as well as among the countries participating in the Crimean platform. By the way, President Erdogan, who is the closest ally of Azerbaijan, personally took part in the second summit of the Crimean Platform on August 23, and just a few days before that he paid a visit to Ukraine. It's time for President Aliyev to do the same.

The Ukrainian people know how to thank their friends for their support. I am sure that Ukraine will also thank Azerbaijan, first of all, for its strong political position and military-technical assistance.