The head of the State Duma’s defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov, told the Russian government newspaper Parlamentskaya Gazeta that neither Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada nor the presidential office qualifies as a “decision-making center” of the kind Russia has threatened to strike.
First of all, the Verkhovna Rada is not a decision-making center — just as the State Duma is not one in Russia. Deputies don’t control troops or decide where and when to strike. The same goes for the Ukrainian president’s office. We all understand that Zelensky doesn’t show up there. He sits in a bunker, while his office has two security guards and five cleaning ladies. Does it make sense to spend costly munitions on what is essentially an empty place?
What could qualify as “decision-making centers,” Kartapolov said, are the protected command posts of Ukraine’s armed forces and security services — though “one needs to understand that they are not located in the center of Kyiv.” “These are hidden, well-fortified positions. And our task is to identify them and expose them using the weapons at our disposal,” he added.
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