Arestovych Believes That Russia Preparing For Another Stage Of Offensive Before Zelenskyy's Meeting With Putin

Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President Oleksii Arestovych believes that Russia is preparing for another stage of the offensive against Ukraine before the meeting between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He said this on the air of the Feigin Live channel on Saturday evening, March 19, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Now all over Russia, reserves are being scraped up. I tell parents: the 18th, 19th motorized rifle brigades, the 61st, 40th brigades of the marines. They want to bring all this here and again throw it at Kyiv or other cities. Just keep in mind that elite units lay down, and a hodgepodge in which representatives of PMCs or reservists will try to act as the backbone, imagine what awaits them. Your government has chosen the most idiotic path: instead of normally agreeing in negotiations, they decided to carry out another stage of the offensive, apparently. And everything will just be the same, only in 2-3 weeks and plus 10,000 of your relatives killed," Arestovych said, addressing the Russians.

He clarified that the 18th and 19th motorized rifle brigades are from the North Caucasus, the 61st and 40th brigades are from the Pacific Fleet.

When asked by the presenter whether it is possible to say that Moscow is deliberately slowing down negotiations now in order to resolve the issue by military means, Arestovych did not agree that this is the case, referring to the words of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who expressed hope for a quick achievement of peace agreements with Ukraine.

"I would not say about a pause, I would say that they most likely want to create the most favorable positions by the start of negotiations, for this they need the sum of military efforts," he said.

As Ukrainian News Agency reported, Turkish Presidential Press Secretary Ibrahim Kalin said, referring to the talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Putin, that, according to Putin, Ukraine and Russia are not ready for negotiations at the presidential level.