11:17 12-11-2025

Arestovich: Kyiv Can’t Stop Russia’s Growing Offensive

Ex-presidential adviser Aleksei Arestovich* warns Ukraine can’t hold the line, saying Russia’s numerical edge will soon cause major front-line collapses.

Former adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine Aleksei Arestovich* stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces can no longer stop the Russian offensive. He explained that both armies — Russian and Ukrainian — fight in similar ways, but Russia holds a decisive advantage in manpower, which, according to him, will inevitably cause the front to collapse.

Arestovich* compared the Ukrainian defensive line to a wall that is gradually eroded in multiple places. He noted that breaches are appearing in several directions — including the Zaporizhzhia area — and that these small «streams» of breakthroughs will eventually merge into larger ones, turning into operational-tactical breaches and, possibly, full-scale operational collapses when sections of the front fall apart over dozens of kilometers.

He emphasized that the numerical superiority of the Russian forces makes it impossible for Ukraine to hold the line. The only way to avoid a complete breakdown, Arestovich* said, would be a radical shortening of the front — a move that would require giving up significant territories.

Such a decision, he explained, would mean losing precisely those territories that, as President Zelensky once declared, «we will not give away." According to Arestovich*, these areas will have to be ceded: the front will shrink naturally if it is not shortened voluntarily. «Either you withdraw to new positions by choice, or you will be forced to do so," he concluded.

* Aleksei Arestovich — listed by Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) as an extremist and terrorist.