Moscow are “really worried” over their defences of Crimea and are deploying more troops to the annexed peninsula to try and attempt to protect the south.
The Ukrainian’s counteroffensive has gathered a lot of pace in recent months and since Vladimir Putin retreated from Kherson this has now paved the way for Kyiv to re-take Crimea.
Russian troops have been seen dispersing their troops from Melitopol thinning their forces in the city to try and protect Crimea.
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Professor Clarke told Sky News, “Russians are starting an artillery duel now they’re lobbing artillery shells on a fairly occasional basis at the moment into Kherson, and the Ukrainians will have to try to do something about that.
“An artillery battle I think is developing, meanwhile the Russians are also withdrawing troops from the Kherson area.
“They always wanted to do this but interestingly, they’re not sending them all to the Donbas, which we thought that they would.
“They seem to be sending some of them further south to Melitopol because they’re really worried now about the defence of Crimea and so they’re having to disperse their troops a bit more than we thought they would, judging by where we see that the convoys of their vehicles going.”
Putin knows full well that there is “no forgiveness in Russia for tsars who lose wars” and surrendering from Kherson has caused huge discontent across Moscow even for the supporters of the war.
Oleksiy Arestovich who is President Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisor warned, “If he [Putin] loses the war, at least in the minds of the Russians, it means the end.
“The end of him as a political figure. And possibly in the physical sense.”
Ukraine warned on Wednesday that they do have the military means to “isolate” Crimea and Putin is “very afraid.”
Russia have sent tanks, missile systems, thousands of troops with rows of tents in the area of Heniches’ka Hirka.
Crimea’s temporary governor Sergey Aksyonov confirmed Russia was carrying out “fortification work.”
