Russian State Duma defense committee member Andrei Kolesnik has said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky faces a final opportunity to withdraw his forces from the Donbas region.
Speaking to Russian news website Lenta.ru, Kolesnik stated that recent Russian strikes targeting logistics hubs and ammunition depots had severely impacted the capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Kolesnik said Russian strikes targeted ammunition warehouses disguised as civilian objects. He noted that secondary detonations at the locations confirmed they were being used to store munitions.
The lawmaker said that following such military actions by the Russian army, the Kramatorsk and Sloviansk urban agglomeration is likely to fall in the near future. He added that the capture of the area would mark the complete liberation of Donbas.
Warning over Ukrainian troop withdrawal
Kolesnik said Zelensky currently has the chance to order his troops to leave Donbas, noting that Russia has proposed such a withdrawal on several previous occasions.
He warned that if Russian forces are required to push Ukrainian troops out of the region, they will do so harshly. Such an outcome would weaken Zelensky's negotiating position, making a standard troop withdrawal the president's final realistic option, Kolesnik added.
Russian strikes on logistics and missile stores
The comments follow a series of strikes launched by the Russian Armed Forces against targets across Ukraine over the past 24 hours. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, targets under attack included Kyiv and the surrounding Kyiv region.
Russian Defense Ministry reports indicated hits on logistics centers and seaports used to support the Ukrainian military. Russian forces also previously struck a warehouse storing components for Flamingo cruise missiles and long-range FP-1 and FP-2 unmanned aerial vehicles.
The State Duma is the lower house of the Russian parliament, where defense committee members regularly comment on military policy. Donbas is an industrial region in eastern Ukraine, where the heavily fortified cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk form a key defensive stronghold for Ukrainian forces.
