Why Ukraine must not retreat from any territory it holds

Translating from the Dialog, Aug. 20:

"Lapin warned that the next battle would be for Poltava, Dnieper, and Kyiv if Ukraine made a fatal mistake 

Igor Lapin expressed outrage at Putin's attempts to outsmart everyone by taking our territories without a fight 

Igor Lapin expressed outrage at Russia's demands for the so-called territorial exchange: "I'm afraid I'm getting the numbers wrong. Let's say they're missing one and a half times more in Donbas than they can give us back in Sumy and Kharkiv. I'm saying this so as not to get too hung up on the number of kilometers. Now, frankly, what's the point of the exchange? Will they give us Belgorod Oblast? We give something from Ukraine, and we get something from Russia, or not? The word 'exchange' isn't appropriate here. I can't even understand who first started using that word, or when."...

A Ukrainian Armed Forces major expressed his opinion on the situation: "This isn't a territorial exchange—it's the additional seizure of additional territory, and in more advantageous positions. Remember the withdrawal of troops near Stanytsia Luhanska? I looked at the map of the fighting (I fought there, I liberated all of that in 2014) and said, 'It feels like they're deliberately wanting to maintain these positions now, to have a springboard for further offensive development.'"

"They told me, 'Lapin, what offensive? We're withdrawing our troops. Everything will be fine. No one will attack us because we have guarantees.' What guarantees? It was precisely this withdrawal of troops during a full-scale invasion that played a very cruel joke on Ukraine. The Russians rushed forward so fast, took off so fast, that we didn't even have time to blow up the bridge, which was actually several dozen kilometers away," the experienced soldier recalled.

"When the Russians want this fortress belt today, they don't just want the cities of Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Konstantinovka, and so on. They also want a place to live, sleep, spend the winter, and prosper, while we have to retreat to the fields. The next battle will probably be for Poltava, the Dnieper, and Kyiv... We absolutely must not do this," Igor Lapin warned Ukrainians of the new danger."