For the first time, a major Italian newspaper let a commander of a Donetsk fighting group explain the situation on the ground in Ukraine. Gian Micalessin, war correspondent for Il Giornale daily, interviewed Captain Filiponenko, who is leading the assault on Popashna, a key small town in Donetsk. From Popashna, the Russians and the independentists are advancing to conquer a section of Donbass between Lugansk and Donetsk. “Popashna here in the south and Rubiesnoye in the north,” explains Captain Filiponenko, “are the two jaws of the pincer that will crush the Ukrainians. From here we advance in three different directions. We aim north to Severodonetsk, west to Bahmut, and south, once past Troiske, we will march on Svitlodarsk to join the troops of the Donetsk republic.”
Micalessin wrote that “The Russian strategy does not seem, in short, to be very different from that adopted in World War II when Stalin found himself having to recover territories occupied by the Third Reich. Basically, a concentric-circle advance supported by extremely intense artillery fire aimed at closing enemy troops in ever-wider pockets while ensuring an escape route capable of avoiding last-man battles like the one staged at Mariupol. In this case, the largest pocket, destined to define the fate of this sector, is bounded by Popashna to the south and Rubyesnoye to the north. The strategy, very different and very slow compared to those adopted by a West forced to come to terms with a public opinion now allergic to protracted conflicts, has its good points.”
