{"id":1340916,"date":"2026-01-06T10:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/they-took-three-hours-who-was-not-in-venezuela\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:27:23","slug":"they-took-three-hours-who-was-not-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/they-took-three-hours-who-was-not-in-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"They took three hours: who was not in Venezuela?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Source: Author&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DmytroVovnianko\/posts\/pfbid0214KFddketAkHGTwyjKrxQVVeDRNep8i1QKeKT6Vn3ehjQmEyBTk2PxkcaV1mEU3ql\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <strong>Because of the events in Venezuela, I have a whole feed of posts like &#8220;well, the States set up Venezuela in three hours, and Moscow tried to build Kyiv in three days &#8211; and broke down! We are cool and only the mountains in the Carpathians are cooler than us!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> No, of course we are cool. Those of us who went to defend Ukraine in the first days and hours of the war are infinitely cool, simply because these people, at the moment when the threat to their lives and health became absolute, did not run away from danger, but moved towards it. And they overcame the danger.<\/p>\n<p> That&#8217;s right. But. I have to remind you all of something.<\/p>\n<p> Moscow, in fact, acted practically the same way as the Americans in Venezuela. The first strike was a missile and bomb strike, on air defense bases and positions and on military aviation airfields. And imagine for a moment that Moscow would have destroyed the main air defense units and combat aircraft at the airfields in the very first hours of the war. Imagine that Moscow would have gained complete domination of the skies. What would have happened then?<\/p>\n<p> And what would have happened is that the Russian paratroopers would have definitely captured the Gostomel airfield. Because the resistance of the conscripts would have been smeared with missiles from Russian planes and helicopters. The artillery that began to hit the runway would have been suppressed by Moscow with aviation. Moscow would have captured the airfield. Moscow would have accepted the personnel of their bloody airborne troops by landing&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/special-operation-in-venezuela-why-putin-should-tighten-up\/\">Special operation in Venezuela: why Putin should tighten up<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> But all this did not happen because literally before the Russian invasion, Ukrainian warplanes were ordered to take to the sky. And air defense units were ordered to leave their bases and take up positions in the fields. Because of this, Moscow hit empty squares, and then Ukrainian air defense and Ukrainian aviation started working. And Moscow did not gain any dominance in the sky.<\/p>\n<p> But.<\/p>\n<p> Moscow could still maneuver its troops, of which it had a large number, back then. But&#8230;<\/p>\n<p> For example, the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade named after the Black Cossacks arrived in Kyiv on time and took up defenses along the Irpin River. I served in the 72nd and talked to sergeants and officers &#8211; they told me that they began to advance to positions not on the 24th, when Moscow was attacked, but on the morning of the 23rd. For a long time I could not understand how this happened.<\/p>\n<p> Everything was explained by an interview with General Nayev, who said that the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were ordered to advance to the battle lines even before the Russian invasion, and that&#8217;s why they managed to do so. Not only in Kyiv. The same thing happened in Kharkiv. The occupiers were met on the Kharkiv Ring Road just a few hours after the invasion &#8211; and they gave battle. It wasn&#8217;t the militias who met them, but the regular units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine &#8211; with command, combat equipment and fire support.<\/p>\n<p> I bow my head to the courage of the people who went to the defense in the first hours, but I said it and I will say it again. If the enemy had been met by armed militias in the first hours, our affairs would have been sour. I say this because I talked to people who tried to stop the enemy in Irpen on their own. Fortunately, they had the sense to retreat after the first shots and then join a certain unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" data-right>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/number-of-ukrainians-accusing-authorities-of-insufficient-preparation-for-invasion-has-increased-poll\/\">Number of Ukrainians accusing authorities of insufficient preparation for invasion has increased \u2013 poll<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> The enemy was met by the army &#8211; with equipment, technical means, cooperation, artillery and missiles. And that is why the enemy was stopped near Kyiv and then began to moan about a &#8220;gesture of goodwill.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> All this happened because there was a person in Ukraine who ordered the air defense to leave the bases with equipment and means. This person ordered the planes to take to the sky. This person ordered the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to go to the combat lines.<\/p>\n<p> This person took an incredible risk. Because she wildly exceeded her authority. Because orders of this level could only be given by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Zelensky V.O. But since Zelensky V.O. was still dreaming about May kebabs, this person took responsibility. And saved Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p> This man is the then head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valeriy Zaluzhny.<\/p>\n<p> Maduro lost because he didn&#8217;t have his own Zaluzhny. And in fact, because Maduro has already completely screwed up Venezuela. Because the US did not set itself the task of capturing Venezuela &#8211; and it is not capturing it. And Zaluzhny was not defending Zelensky. He was defending Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p> Whether anyone wants it or not, we still exist as a state solely thanks to Zaluzhny.<\/p>\n<p> Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Twitter<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> , and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram<\/a> .<\/p>\n<p> <span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 Materials published in the \u201cOPINIONS\u201d section reflect the opinion of the author of the publication, who bears full responsibility for the accuracy of the information.<\/em><\/span><br \/> <span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 The editorial staff of prm.ua may not share the opinions expressed in the author&#8217;s material.<\/em><\/span><br \/> <span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 The owner of the webpage in the \u201cOPINIONS\u201d section is the author of the publication.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Author&#8217;s Facebook page Because of the events in Venezuela, I have a whole feed of posts like &#8220;well, the States set up Venezuela in three hours, and Moscow tried to build Kyiv in three days &#8211; and broke down! We are cool and only the mountains in the Carpathians are cooler than us!&#8221; No, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1340882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76893],"class_list":["post-1340916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1340882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}