Russia has mobilised 500,000 troops for new offensive, Kyiv warns

2023-02-02

Putin has ‘mobilised half a MILLION troops for major new offensive on anniversary of Ukraine invasion’: Sergei Lavrov warns Russia will ‘gain the world’s attention’ on February 24

Russia said it mobilised 300,000 troops for its invasion of Ukraine in September
But Oleksiy Reznikov says it’s likely more, and they are preparing another assault

Russia has mobilised 500,000 troops for a major new offensive in Ukraine on the anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Kyiv’s defence minister warned last night, before the Kremlin said it planned ‘gain the world’s attention’ on February 24.

Speaking on French television, Oleksiy Reznikov said the Russian military is planning to call on the huge number of soldiers to mount another assault on his country.

February 24 will mark 365 days since Moscow’s troops first rolled into parts of Ukraine not already under Russian occupation. But what the Kremlin hoped would be a swift overthrow of Ukraine’s government has dragged into a painful war of attrition, with Kyiv’s forces driving the invaders back in the east.

Now, despite suffering a series of setbacks, Putin is preparing to launch another major offensive in an attempt swing the momentum in favour of his armies and achieve victory in Ukraine once and for all, according to Reznikov.

Moscow appeared to hint at a new offensive on Thursday, with Putin’s chief diplomat saying that Russia had plans to overshadow pro-Ukrainian events arranged by Western and allied countries around the world to mark the anniversary.

Russia has mobilised 500,000 troops for a major new offensive in Ukraine on the anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Kyiv’s defence minister warned last night. Pictured: Ukrainian servicemen fire a mortar towards Russian positions near the town of Soledar

Lavrov said ominously Russian diplomats were working on something to ensure Western-led events in New York and elsewhere were ‘not the only ones to gain the world’s attention’, without providing details.

Referring to Russia’s partial mobilisation of 300,000 conscripted soldiers which Moscow said was concluded in November, the Ukrainian defence minister said the true size of the force could be closer to 500,000 – and is gathering on the borders.

‘We do not underestimate our enemy,’ Reznikov said during an interview, broadcast late Wednesday. ‘Officially, they announced 300,000, but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our assessments it is much more.

He said Russia was likely to ‘try an offensive on two fronts’: In the country’s east, which has been at the centre of brutal fighting in recent months, and in the south.

Reznikov said Kyiv believes Moscow has deployed about half a million troops – far more than Russia’s claim of 300,000 personnel currently mobilised.

In order to repel the attack, he called on the West to supply it with more weaponry.

In the past week, Western powers including US and Germany have approved sending more than 100 battle tanks to Ukraine – a move that Russia has warned crosses a dangerous new line in the conflict.

It was also reported yesterday that the US was preparing a more than $2billion package of military aid, including the delivery of long-range missiles.

However, the US and the UK have for now rebuffed Kyiv’s requests for fighter jets, amid fears that it could lead to Russia escalating the war even further. ‘We need arms to counter the enemy,’ Reznikov said.

February 24 will mark 365 days since Moscow’s troops first rolled into parts of Ukraine not already under Russian occupation. Pictured: Rescuers remove debris in a search for survivors at a destroyed apartment building hit by a rocket in downtown Kramatorsk on February 1

Referring to Russia’s partial mobilisation of 300,000 conscripted soldiers which Moscow said was concluded in November, Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said the true size of the force could be closer to 500,000 – and is gathering on the borders. A Ukrainian soldier fires a machine gun towards a Russian position on the front line, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the town of Soledar

Foreign Minister Lavrov accuses West of aiming to destroy Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the West of wanting to inflict a lasting defeat against Moscow and lashed out against EU chief Ursula von der Leyen who earlier arrived in Kyiv.

‘Ursula von der Leyen… said that the outcome of the war should be the defeat of Russia, the kind of defeat that for decades, for many decades, Russia cannot restore its economy,’ Lavrov said in comments aired on Russian state television.

‘Is this not racism, not Nazism – not an attempt to solve ‘the Russian question” Lavrov added, evoking Russia’s victory against Nazi Germany in World War II.

The European Commission chief announced she had arrived in Kyiv with a team of commissioners and the bloc’s most senior diplomat earlier Thursday, a day before a Ukraine-European Union summit in the war-torn country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has frequently drawn parallels between what he calls Moscow’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine and the war against Nazi Germany.

He launched the conflict in Ukraine in February last year with the announced aim of ‘de-Nazifying’ the country.

Reporting by AFP

His comments echoed those of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, who said in a video address that a ‘definite increase has been noted in the offensive operations of the occupiers on the front in the east of our country.

‘The situation has become tougher,’ he admitted.

Last week Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, also said it was likely Russia was planning an attack to mark the anniversary of the 2022 invasion, and that Moscow’s troops had been handed the task of going ‘beyond the borders’ of the mostly-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The two regions make up the eastern Donbas, a region Putin has made clear he wants to seize from the start of his so-called ‘special military operation’.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said: ‘There is an active transfer of [Russian troops] to the region and they are definitely preparing for something on the eastern front in February,’ according to The Guardian.

In a separate report, the newspaper spoke to Lt Col Roman Tkach, who is stationed in Ukraine’s northern Sumy oblast which shares 350-mile border with Russia. He spoke of how he and his comrades had felt an increase in activity in recent weeks.

Military think tank the Institute for the Study of War concurred with Reznikov, saying in a Wednesday update on the war’s progress: ‘Ukrainian officials are continuing to warn about Russia’s intention of conducting a decisive offensive operation in Donbas in February and/or March, supporting ISW’s most likely course of action assessment.’

It also said that Putin was likely preparing for further cross-border raids across Ukraine’s northeastern borders, ‘likely in an effort to further domestic information operations and pin Ukrainian forces against northern border areas.’

Intelligence reports from the West, Ukraine and Russia have all pointed towards a renewed Spring offensive by Russia, after a territorial stalemate set in over winter after Ukraine liberated thousands of square miles of its land in the North and South.

Still, some of the wars most intense fighting has taken place over winter around Bakhmut, a key target of the Kremlin’s, with Russia making small gains.

Both sides have suffered massive casualties in the fighting, with reports suggesting Russia has seen tens of thousands of troops killed in the ‘meat grinder’ of a battle.

Speaking on French television, Oleksiy Reznikov (pictured Wednesday) said the Russian military is planning to call on the huge number of soldiers to mount another assault

Russia has mobilised 500,000 troops for new offensive, Kyiv warns

Putin has ‘mobilised half a MILLION troops for major new offensive on anniversary of Ukraine invasion’: Sergei Lavrov warns Russia will ‘gain the world’s attention’ on February 24

Foreign Minister Lavrov accuses West of aiming to destroy Russia

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