Russia abandoned efforts to take more territory and is focusing on defense, Ukraine claims

Russia has all but given up on trying to take more territory and is now concentrating on defending its positions in preparation for a ruthless counter-offensive by Ukraine, the head of military intelligence in Kiev said.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence agency, said Vladimir Putin’s forces were directing almost all of their offensive operations to try to take the hotly contested city of Bakhmut.

The decorated Major General Budanov, 37, did not give details of Ukrainian battle plans, but promised a long-awaited counterattack would be a “milestone battle in Ukraine’s history.”

It comes after Yevgeny Prighozin, the head of the feared Wagner mercenary group of Russian fighters, stated earlier this month that his forces had taken Bakhumt. The city did not fall and heavy fighting continued.

Budanov taunted Prighozin in his last interview with RBC Ukrainesaying that Putin’s friend has nothing to celebrate with the meager gains and huge losses suffered by Russian forces.

Budanov said the Russian military command is trying to use similar tactics to those in Bakhmut in the towns of Avdiivka and Marinka, which are also in the disputed Donetsk region, but with limited success.

Outside the area, Budanov said, Putin’s forces “have completely switched to positional defense everywhere.”

“The only places in the frontline where they are making attempts are in the town of Bakhmut, an attempt to cover the town of Avdiivka from the north, and local fighting in the town of Marinka.

“Both in Avdiivka and Marinka the tactics are identical to those in Bakhmut – just an attempt to wipe the settlement off the face of the earth, as they say,” he said.

Photos from the two cities show scenes of utter devastation caused by shelling.

In a scene of devastation, a local resident rides his bicycle past a shopping center destroyed by a missile attack in the frontline city of Avdiivka.

Another photo shows a bombed-out residential building in the city.

A local resident drives past a shopping mall destroyed by a missile strike in the frontline city of Avdiivka, Donetsk region, on April 25, 2023

A local resident walks in front of a mural of a woman with a child on a wall of a badly damaged residential building in the frontline city of Avdiivka

Budanov also revealed that he believes there is little chance of Vuhledar in the Donbas region, where a major tank battle took place, being taken by Russian forces.

The intelligence chief went on to speculate about the increased domestic pressure facing Putin and the Russian military leadership as the heavy losses are outweighed by major gains in what was originally presented as a short-term “special military operation”. term.

“Against the lack of success elsewhere, they face the problem that even their ‘misguided’ society needs to see something, some kind of victory,” he said.

Major General Budanov, 37, did not give details of Ukrainian battle plans, but promised a long-awaited counterattack would be a “milestone battle in Ukraine’s history.”

Ukrainian servicemen from the 115 Territorial Defense Brigade attend an exercise near the border with Belarus

“This is the only place where they at least succeed. In addition, there is the fact that Prigozhin once said that he would take Bakhmut.

“He’d love to sing about it, but he can’t. That is, everything just came together here,’ Budanov said.

His remarks were made as Russian casualties fell by nearly a third this month, British intelligence reports, as Moscow reportedly scales down its attacks and prepares for an attack by Kiev.

In his extensive interview, Budanov also denounced the Russian president for his alleged use of body doubles, claiming that he had not visited the occupied territories of Luhansk, Mariupol and Kherson in recent weeks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin next to propogandist Dmitry Peskov, who has denied that the 70-year-old dictator uses body doubles

The Kremlin was forced to issue an extraordinary denial that Vladimir Putin is using body doubles and hiding in nuclear bunkers amid rumors of the warmonger’s health.

Putin’s mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov – a senior Kremlin official – insisted the Russian president is in good health, even telling schoolchildren that it was a “lie” that he used body doubles.

In a subsequent update, Budanov also revealed yesterday that Ukraine and Russia are approaching an agreement on an “all-for-all” prisoner swap.

The military chief noted that Ukraine has released more than 2,200 people under the prisoner of war exchange program and that Ukrainian troops have also been returned home.