Russia may recruit those who fled abroad to destabilize the situation in Kharkiv - political expert

Russia does not give up its intention to capture Kharkiv and the entire Kharkiv region and is already conducting information attacks to destabilize the situation in the city. In particular, the aggressor country may use people who are abroad, but not in Russia, to undermine the situation in Kharkiv. This was stated by political scientist Igor Reiterovich in an exclusive commentary to UNN.

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Recently, military analyst BILD Julian Röpke, citing intelligence sources, said that Russia intends to continue military operations in Ukraine until 2026, and during this time plans to capture most of Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Kharkiv regions, including their regional centers.

 It is absolutely unrealistic in the near future, given the situation at the front. They do not have such capabilities. They do have the intentions, and they have never abandoned these intentions. But today, purely operationally and tactically, they do not have sufficient resources and certain forces to do so. In addition, there is a certain understanding on the part of our military and political leadership that we need to further strengthen this region. This is definitely not possible this year, but next year they may attempt an offensive to somehow turn the tide in their favor. But the likelihood of success is not just at the level of statistical error, it is at the level of some negative values

The political scientist emphasized that Kharkiv is a huge city that will be extremely difficult to capture and will require a lot of forces and resources, which Russia does not have. He added that the enemy may try to capture Kharkiv and is trying to destabilize the situation in the city, in particular by spreading IPSO about the panic of Kharkiv residents and the inability to defend the city.

"As for the attacks on local authorities, this is an integral part of the IPSO's attacks," the political scientist says.

According to him, enemy information attacks can be based on the opposite.

"Since the authorities in Kharkiv are opposed to Russia, they can disperse messages that they are pro-Russian, or that they are waiting for the Russians. It is important for them to have some internal disagreement, internal disputes," he added.

Reiterovich does not rule out the possibility that Russia could use people living abroad to undermine the situation in Kharkiv. However, he emphasizes that these people should not be on the territory of the Russian Federation, because they will not be treated positively by Kharkiv residents.

 People who are somewhere outside of Kharkiv, somewhere abroad, but not in Russia - they can theoretically be used, both directly and in the dark... What I mean is that some civic activist is taken, and some of our activists - men, in particular - have gone abroad. And now they are abroad talking about bad mobilization, criticizing local authorities, among other things. It is enough for these people to simply leak some information that will be half-truths - it will not be true, but there will be some rational grain there so that they can grab hold of it and start promoting the topic... Often such activists are just useful idiots, they believe that they are doing important work, they believe that they are exposing corrupt officials, although in reality it turns out that there was no corruption. But the attack goes on, it hits, first of all, the authorities, the relationship between local authorities and the central government, and of course plays into the hands of the Russian Federation to a certain extent

In his opinion, the story of Kyrylo Kernes, the son of former Kharkiv mayor Hennadiy Kernes, is very similar.

"The person sat and kept silent for three years, did not comment on anything, and everything was fine. Then, when he had some political, I guess, disagreements, and he thought that because of his surname he would enjoy some great support and so on... But children are not always parents, right? And when he saw that he did not have the same influence as his father, he started telling some stories and attacks began. I think that if there was some rational grain there, then there would have been some rumors, but no one spoke out. And here so many years have passed and a person starts talking. Why did he start talking? For what purpose? Who pushed him to do this? So there are a lot of questions about this, and these stories are not very positively perceived during the war. But they will be made because it shakes up society," the political scientist noted.

Recall

Kyrylo Kernes is the son of former Kharkiv mayor Hennadiy Kernes, who died on December 17, 2020, in the German Charité clinic. Hennadii Kernes was elected mayor of Kharkiv in the first round of local elections on October 25, 2020. On December 9, Hennadiy Kernes took office as mayor of Kharkiv. After his death, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine announced early mayoral elections in Kharkiv, which were won by Ihor Terekhov .

After his father's death, as well as before, Kyrylo Kernes hardly appeared in the information space. Shortly after the outbreak of full-scale war, he left for Germany, as he is the guardian of his minor children after the death of his wife Yana . However, a few weeks ago, Kyrylo Kernes began giving interviews to Ukrainian media, in which he claims that after his father's death, the authorities in Kharkiv were seized.