General Kyrylo Budanov, who had predicted the Russian invasion in November, said Moscow could not “swallow” the country, but faced a guerrilla war if it sought to dismantle it. His warning came as Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic in the disputed Donbass region to the east, said he might hold a referendum on his territory becoming part of Russia. “I think that in the near future there will be a referendum in the territory of democracy, in which the people… The Russian president recognized the two such self-proclaimed eastern republics of Luhansk and Donetsk shortly before the start of the war. He launched his so-called “special military operation” on February 24, claiming that he was acting to defend its people. Budanov said he believed Putin wanted to occupy all of Ukraine, but changed his plan after failing to occupy its capital, Kyiv, and overthrow Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s government in the early days of the war. Saturday’s rocket attacks in Lviv, in western Ukraine, near the Polish border, are seen as a message of contempt for US President Joe Biden, who was speaking in neighboring Poland, and an attempt to strike Ukrainian fuel and military equipment. supplies. The two targets of the attacks, after which black smoke opened on the historic skyline of Lviv bell towers and vaulted cathedral, were a fuel depot and a factory used to repair tanks, anti-aircraft systems and radar stations. Both were located close to apartment buildings and only a mile from the city center which is protected by the UNESCO World Heritage Site. A witness, Dmitry Leonov, 36, an IT worker, said the ground shook and people were thrown to the ground by the force of the explosions at the tank factory. The windows of a local school are said to have been broken by force. The head of Lviv’s emergency services, Khrystyna Avdyeyeva, said the fire at the fuel depot had finally been extinguished after 13 hours at 6.49am. of Sunday. “The boys have gone through hell,” he said. “Let them burn in the same hell,” he said. “But our heroes will not be there, so no one will survive.” Map of Ukraine Budanov said he was convinced the Russian president was seeking to separate Ukraine despite the attack on the west, only the third major attack there since the start of the war. He said: “Putin is already changing the main operational directions – to the south and east. There is reason to believe that it is considering a “Korean scenario” for Ukraine. “This is trying to impose a dividing line between the non-occupied and the occupied areas of our country. In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine. “In the end, it is certainly not in a position to swallow the whole country.” Russia has been trapped in the besieged port city of Mariupol in its efforts to build a land corridor between Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and the Donbas region. Budanov said he did not believe Mariupol would fall soon and that Russian troops would face rebel tactics even if he managed to defeat the experienced Azov Battalion in the leveled city. He said: “The occupiers will try to unite the occupied territories into a single quasi-state entity, which will oppose an independent Ukraine. We are already seeing efforts to create “parallel” principles in the occupied territories and force people to leave the hryvnia [Ukraine’s national currency]. “They may want to negotiate internationally. However, the resistance and protests of our citizens in the occupied territories, the counterattacks of the armed forces and the gradual liberation – significantly complicate the implementation of the plans of the enemy. “In addition, the season of the complete safari of the Ukrainian guerrillas will begin soon. “Then there will be a relevant scenario for the Russians – how to survive.” Zelenskiy’s advisor Oleksii Arestovych reiterated the intelligence chief’s analysis. “Within a week or two, Russia will withdraw troops from the Kiev and Kharkiv regions and send them to Donbas,” he said. They realized that they would not be able to occupy the big cities, they would announce the completion of the first phase of the “special operation” and the beginning of the second – the “liberation of Donbass”. Arestovic continued: “Now they have three tasks: to encircle our troops in Donbas, to fully occupy Mariupol and the south. If they lose Hersonissos [a city west of Mariupol], their entire occupation of Mariupol will collapse. And that’s all. “There will be no occupation of Kiev, Kharkov or Odessa.” Elsewhere in Kharkov, authorities reported 44 artillery attacks and 140 rocket attacks in a single day, including at a nuclear research facility. In Kyiv, authorities warned that Russians were increasingly disguising themselves as civilians to engage in sabotage.
