“There will be no peace for another six months.” What happened to Pokrovsk can happen to Pavlograd, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kyiv — NV interview with Firsov

— You gave an interview and said that when you came to Kyiv, you got the impression that there is a kind of desynchronization between what is happening at the front and the mood of society in the rear. It’s as if everyone has already decided that peace is a fait accompli, but from your side and your brothers, it doesn’t look like that at all. What does it consist of?

– Oh, that’s true. The more I’m on vacation, the more I think we’re kind of out of sync. Even in the interview you mentioned, I mentioned a certain NATO standard. It is called a synchronization matrix, when all divisions must use the same cards, relatively speaking, and understand information in the same way as the division next to it. The same story should happen in society.

Society in the conventional rear, in peaceful cities, plunged into their information bubble, or rather, even inflated it, about the possibility of a quick prospect of joining NATO. This, I think, cools things down a bit and gives people the illusion of security, that maybe not this year and not next, but we will soon be accepted into NATO. Or, for example, the international contingent that is being discussed and, most likely, it will come to Ukraine. And in general, “we understand that the war will end soon, itself [обраний президент США Дональд] Trump said it, and he says it all the time.” And besides Trump, Gordon and a number of journalists confirmed this.

And this society is cooling. First of all, a person who still doubted, nevertheless thought about whether to go to war, will definitely not go. The second point is that the one who donated constantly will not donate: why spend money, everything will end in February? And this is how most people live, I think, in cities where there is no war.

Ukrainian military next to the building destroyed by Russia in Pokrovsk / Photo: REUTERS/Alina Smutko

Where there is war, everything is completely different. We understand this world in a fundamentally different way. That there won’t be any peace in the months ahead, maybe even at least half a year. Banal because why is it for the enemy, who has an advance of one kilometer per day. Why should he stop the war now?

Imagine the mirror situation. We are advancing one kilometer a day – deeper, closer to Donetsk. We liberated Horlivka, we are liberating Avdiivka, our DRGs have already been spotted in Donetsk. What will we do? Will we go to a truce? No, we will delay, do our own thing.

And the enemy is doing the same now. Yes, [російський диктатор Володимир] Putin will tell everyone that he is ready for negotiations. Will come to Trump, will talk with him. But he will not stop his troops.

And we at the front understand only one thing: the hot phase of the war is now going as deep as possible. I’m on vacation right now, but the guys are sending me videos of their drone flights. The guys send me a video of the enemy advancing and occupying some dugouts.

We can see that the only one [можливість]so that there is peace, is to stop the enemy as quickly as possible, not to let him pass and to do everything so that he bears total losses. Only then is there a theoretical possibility that Russia will go to some kind of peace talks.

— Can we say that we have already experienced the culmination of the enemy offensive? Is it possible that such estimates are incorrect and cannot be measured?