Russia Can't Take Key Ukrainian Region 'Quickly,' Occupation Leader Admits

The head of Russia's puppet administration in the partially occupied southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia has admitted that Moscow's forces will not be able to seize control of the rest of the region "quickly," blaming expected local resistance and Western activity.

Yevgeny Balitsky, a Ukrainian politician who became the acting governor of the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia—referred to as Zaporozhye in Russia—in October 2022, told the pro-Kremlin Crimean television channel Krym-24 on Monday that Russian forces face a difficult task in seizing the rest of the Zaporizhzhia region.

"There is no way of taking Zaporizhzhia quickly," Balitsky said, as quoted by Russia's state-run Tass news agency. "Sweeping measures will have to be used. In the work for safe streets, we will have to clear vast areas of mines."

"We also see the methods the U.S. and the European coalitions have been employing to brainwash the people, who take up arms or who are simply mobilized."

"They have no understanding of either history or culture," Balitsky said of the Ukrainians who reject and are resisting the Russian narrative that has underpinned Moscow's aggression against Ukraine since 2014.

Balitsky said spring would be the earliest it would be possible for Russian forces to launch a fresh offensive to take the region. "I don't think this can happen earlier," he said.

Balitsky is originally from Melitopol, and served in the Soviet and Ukrainian air forces before becoming an entrepreneur and going into politics. He is a veteran of Ukraine's pro-Russian parties—now banned—and began collaborating with Moscow's forces soon after they crossed the borders in February.

Baltisky has been placed under sanctions by the U.S, U.K, and European Union, and joined the heads of the other occupation authorities at the Kremlin at the end of September when President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions into the Russian Federation.

Russia is on the backfoot in southern Ukraine, having been pushed out of the city of Kherson in the fall. The front lines in the area have been static with the onset of winter, though the area to the south of the city of Zaporizhzhia—which is still held by Ukraine—could prove the target for the next Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming months.

If Ukrainian forces are able to break the Russian lines south of Zaporizhzhia, the occupied city of Melitopol is a tantalizing objective. The city is the seat of Russia's puppet regional administration, and the "key to Crimea," according to its exiled mayor, Ivan Fedorov.

Its liberation would imperil Russia's land bridge running from the occupied Crimean peninsula all the way to the Russian border. Establishing this land bridge was a priority for invading Russian forces, and remains one of Russia's few strategic accomplishments in almost 11 months of fighting.

The eastern Donetsk region has been the focus of recent combat, with Russian units—led by Wagner Group mercenaries—making gains around the devastated towns of Bakhmut and Soledar. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces are pushing forward slowly around the town of Kreminna in the eastern Luhansk region.

Moscow will be hoping that its hundreds of thousands of mobilized troops can reinvigorate its offensive capabilities in southern Ukraine and elsewhere, and help reform units mauled by months of reported heavy losses. Ukrainian leaders have warned that Russian troops will likely launch fresh operations in 2023, though it remains to be seen where such efforts might come.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense to request comment.