A Pole about the tragic situation in Ukraine. "They have no one to fight" For weeks, everyone has been waiting for information about any successes of the Ukrainian offensive. Sławomir Wysocki - a Pole who regularly goes to Ukraine to help, tells how tragic the situation is there. - The human losses are huge. Western equipment burns like matches. It is much worse than is commonly portrayed, he says.
For a long time there have been voices that Ukraine, during its attempted offensive, is beating its head against the wall. Experts say that for two months they managed to penetrate only one of the Russian defense lines . It's not enough to talk about success.
Sławomir Wysocki - a Pole who regularly travels to Ukraine, where he provides soldiers with equipment necessary on the front line, went with members of the "Russian Pursuit" organization to Avdiivka - a city in the eastern part of Ukraine, in the Donetsk region. In an interview with Wirtualna Polska, he says that "the situation was gruesome" .
He saw the Ukrainian revolutions: it is a continuation of one path "If we hadn't gone there, those people would have starved to death" - Avdiivka was quite heavily shelled. We were asked if we really wanted to go there. We said - of course we did. If we hadn't gone there, those people who stayed there would have starved to death. There is no other help there. In the city of 40,000, where until 2014 one of the largest coking plants in the Donbass was located, there are maybe 200 people left, he says.
The city, he says, is not completely ruined, but it is abandoned, broken, flats are burnt, the infrastructure is destroyed. Old people still live in horror houses . They don't want to leave. The only help they get is from charities, help from us - says Wysocki.
Avdiivka is under constant fire. The authorities announced the evacuation at the end of March this year. The city was in the "red zone". - I was there for the first time, for the first time so close to Donetsk. The situation there is very difficult. A boy from the "Pogoń Ruska" organization told me that when he was there, he was afraid for the first time – he adds.
"There is no success there" And he emphasizes that the mood in eastern Ukraine, in Donbass, is bad. - In the spring, at the beginning of summer, they hoped that they would be able to carry out an effective offensive, that they would be able to drive the Russians away. However, there are no successes there. For months, they only penetrated the enemy's first line of defense - estimates Wysocki.
- Human losses on the Ukrainian side are huge. Western equipment burns like matches. It is much worse than is commonly portrayed.
Wysocki says that he has recently counted the graves in Lviv. - There are about 100 graves in the old part of the cemetery, some from 2014. There are over 600 of them in the new part. We have about 700 burials from the city of about 700,000. In the villages, this proportion is colossally different. When I drive through them, I see cemeteries along the street. On each of them there are from a few to a dozen new graves. There are flags next to each, it is easy to recognize them - he reports.
He was eight months in captivity. "As in Auschwitz" - There are over two thousand graves in Kharkiv. In addition, there are corpses that have not been found, that have been torn apart in the trenches or are buried in cellars in Bakhmut. These losses can no longer be hidden. Just go and count the graves in Ukrainian cemeteries. Soldiers also see it - says the interlocutor of Wirtualna Polska.
Wysocki also talks about a meeting he had a few days ago, which he describes as traumatic. He spoke to a man in his 60s who was a sergeant in the marines, defending Azovstal. For eight months he was in Russian captivity, lost 30 kg and is now trying to heal as much as possible. - I asked him how it was there. He told me: 'Sławek, like in Auschwitz'. I didn't ask for anything else, " he says.
"The Russian army has already learned everything and has caught up with everything" The last time I spoke with Sławomir Wysocki was at the end of July . Today, a Pole tells me directly: - Two months ago, I was full of optimism about Kupiańska. At the moment, it still manages to hold positions. How long? I don't know. It seems that the Russians are doing everything to reach Kupiansk, where they will take their positions for the spring offensive , predicts the interlocutor of Wirtualna Polska.
How do the Ukrainians fighting on the front relate to the Russian defense system? "They're terrified," Vysotsky says shortly. - They know that the Russian army has already learned everything and has caught up with everything, they are thoroughly prepared. The Russians have very good engineer troops. The defense system was built by construction companies. It wasn't the peasant who waved the shovel around to build the trench. Companies came, poured concrete, made fortifications in the style of the Maginot Line. And there are three or four of these lines - he adds vividly.
- Ukrainians say that there are five mines on one square meter. You can't put your foot down without one of them exploding.
Ukrainians are running out of time. "The prognosis is not promising" "They have no one to fight" Due to such a difficult situation at the front, with more and more victims, are they still willing to defend their homeland? - There are no takers. They are even found in the streets. In Lviv, there are "round-ups" outside the city center, people are taken from the construction site, people enter pubs, where the working class comes to drink beer and people are "gathered" - he says .
- Recently, I witnessed such a situation at the bus station No. 2 in Lviv. Five policemen stood and checked everyone who wanted to leave Lwów. Couldn't explain himself? He was going to the page. They detained eight people - says the Pole.
And he explains that many of the reasons for this situation have their origin in Bakhmut. - It was such a drainage, a meat grinder on both sides ... There is no one to fight. Soldiers say: we have something, and soon we will have no one to fight - these were the voices in May. And now they just don't have anyone anymore .
"Ukrainians are losing the flower of their society" In his opinion, Vladimir Putin loses "plebs" in the war. - He sends there the poorest, uneducated, people who want to earn money. And Ukrainians are losing the flower of their society. These are losses as in the Warsaw Uprising - he adds vividly. And he emphasizes: - The most experienced people die, including those who fought in 2014. Those without experience spent four hours in Bachmut in the spring.
And he gives the example of his friend, who was the chief financial analyst in the largest commercial bank in Kiev. - On the first day of the war, he took his wife and child out of Lwów. He immediately enlisted, although he had never been in the army. He hasn't seen them in over a year and a half. He wasn't on any pass. For a year he was in the trenches on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, and now he has been transferred to Kupiansk, where he was preparing the trenches. He's a little over 40, she says.
"Ukrainians will not give up" - The Russians are waiting for winter to start destroying Ukraine's critical infrastructure again. They are hoping that after a mild winter last year, a harsh one will come this year. And that they will be able to finish off Ukraine in such a way that in the spring they will reach Kiev and force Ukraine to "peace", predicts Vysotsky.
As he adds, "Ukrainians will not give up." “They will bleed out for the next few years. But if Europe does not understand that this is Russia's war against all of Europe, and not just Ukraine, the losses will be even greater. And they are already powerful - adds the interlocutor of Wirtualna Polska.
