Ukraine may have time to break land corridor between Russia, Crimea by Winter: Kyiv

Ukraine’s forces can break the land corridor connecting occupied Crimea with Russia before the onset of winter, the head of the intelligence department of Ukraine’s defense ministry told the Economist.

“[Russia’s] first defensive line in the all-important southern axis in Zaporizhia has already been pierced in places, meaning that the operation to sever the land connections between Russia and Crimea may yet be achieved before winter sets in,” Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with the Economist.

He added: “Ukraine may already have drawn on limited numbers of its reserve troops, but Russia is now, in seeming desperation, known to be committing under-strength reserves that it had not planned to deploy until late October.”

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Budanov highlighted: “Contrary to what the Russian Federation declares, it has absolutely no strategic reserve.” According to him, Russia’s 25th Combined Arms Army, now being prematurely deployed in the eastern front around Lyman and Kupyansk, has only 80 percent of the manpower and 55 percent of the equipment it was supposed to have.

As for Ukraine’s series of drone attacks on Russia, the intelligence chief said the three main objectives for Kyiv’s new drone campaign against Moscow are: to exhaust Russia’s air-defense systems; to disable military transport and bombers; and to damage military production facilities.

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