“Russia is preparing for maximum escalation,” warns Ukraine

Ukraine warned today that Russia is preparing for a “maximum escalation” of the war as Kyiv prepares for Moscow’s highly anticipated three-front spring offensive.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said that Vladimir Putin may be planning another simultaneous attack on the country from the north, south and east on February 24 to coincide with the anniversary of the start of the war. .

Danilov warned that the bloodiest battles “are yet to come” and will take place in the coming months, at what will be a “definitive” moment in the war.

He told Sky News: ‘Russia is preparing for maximum escalation. He’s pulling everything together, doing drills and training.

“When it comes to offensive from different directions, for now, I can say that we are not excluding any scenario in the next two or three weeks.”

Russia is expected to have launched a major assault, ordering forces south of Belarus, north of Crimea and east of the Donbas to encircle and strangle Kyiv’s forces.

Danilov said that Putin could launch his three-pronged offensive against Ukraine on the anniversary of the war on February 24. “We understand that everything is on the table,” he said.

Speaking about whether the worst is yet to come on the battlefield, Danilov said: “Of course, we went through a long and difficult period, but I am aware that the main fights are yet to come and will happen this year in two to three years. months.

‘These will be decisive months in the war. We have our own plans and they are clear to us. They are not hidden from our core partners.

His comments came after Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhny, told The Economist last month that Russia was preparing 200,000 new troops for a major offensive that could come from the east, south or even from Belarus in the spring.

While Germany, the US and other Western nations including Britain have said they will send fourth-generation main battle tanks to Ukraine, they will take months to arrive.

The process could even leave Ukraine stranded without high-tech weaponry until Moscow orders its long-awaited three-prong offensive in the spring.

The US doesn’t even have a ready supply of M1 Abrams tanks to deliver and will need to procure part of its fleet, while German defense minister Boris Pistorius said its Leopard 2 tanks won’t be ready until late March or early April. .

Military analysts say more aid is crucial if Ukraine is to block an expected Russian spring offensive and launch its own effort to push back Russian forces.

But Danilov is sure that Ukraine will win the war. “We will definitely win because we have all the support of the world behind us,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of Russia’s top spies predicted on Wednesday that the NATO military alliance would fail to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Moscow, despite sending billions of dollars worth of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine.

Sergei Naryshkin, who heads Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service and is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, accused NATO of upping the ante in the conflict by supplying Kyiv with more advanced weapons.

“NATO is raising the stakes because it is still dreaming of a strategic defeat over Russia,” Naryshkin said in a televised interview with the state-run RIA news agency published on Wednesday. ‘But this is not going to happen.’

His comments come as the United States is preparing its latest military aid package for Ukraine, worth about $2 billion.

The supplies are expected to include rockets with a range of up to 150 kilometers (94 miles) for the first time.

Washington has previously hesitated to supply Kyiv with such long-range weapons, apparently fearing they could be used in strikes against Russia itself, which could bring Moscow and NATO closer to the brink of direct conflict.

Naryshkin criticized Washington’s latest military aid promises, saying Moscow had “taken note of the expansion in both the volume and range of military equipment supplied.”

He said the United States and its allies were “determined to wage war with Russia to the last Ukrainian.”

Following promises by the United States, Germany and several other European countries to deliver dozens of tanks to Ukraine, Russian officials including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused NATO countries of take a more active role in the war.

Kyiv and the West say the military supplies are vital to help Ukraine fend off what they say is an illegal war of aggression waged by Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year in what it called a ” special military operation”. .’

Meanwhile, on the front lines, Russian forces are making increasing gains in their attempt to seize territory in the eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, concentrating on the town of Bakhmut, north of the regional capital.

Having finally persuaded NATO countries to supply the modern battle tanks, the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is now pushing hard for some of Ukraine’s neighbors and Western allies to supply combat aircraft.

In Paris, after meeting with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said there was “no taboo” on supplying fighter jets to Kyiv.

The United States and Britain have so far rejected the idea, but reiterated their willingness to continue military support for Ukraine.

The West has so far refused to send weapons that could be used to strike deep into Russia for fear of starting a broader conflict, though Moscow has denounced recent Western arms promises as provocations.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut came under fire again as did Klishchiivka and Kurdyumivka, villages on the southern approaches to the city, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement late Tuesday.

Bakhmut has come under relentless bombardment for months as Russian forces resorted to the same destructive tactics they used to capture two cities further north, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, in June and July.

Russian forces made no progress on Tuesday in attempts to advance on Avdiivka, the second focal point of Russian attacks in the Donetsk region, the Kyiv military staff said.

Russian forces also tried to advance near Lyman, a town further north in the Donetsk region that was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in October, the army said.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said on YouTube that Russian forces in the area were regrouping and bringing in recruits on what he called a “death transporter.”

“We inflict as much damage as possible and they are forced to bring in fresh forces to keep up the constant attacks on our troops,” he said.

“The recruits can’t keep up with the previous rounds… Their physical abilities aren’t up to scratch and their motivation is much weaker.”

Russia was reaching further west in Donetsk firing on the town of Vuhledar and half a dozen other cities and towns, Ukraine’s military said. Vuhledar is about 148 km (90 miles) southeast of the main fighting in and around Bakhmut.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said the Russian force in the new Vuhledar assault was at least the size of a brigade, a unit that normally comprises several thousand soldiers.

In the neighboring region of Luhansk, a planned Ukrainian advance had slowed down and an attack to liberate the city of Svatovo had been delayed due to bad weather, the military commander in the sector, Yuri Federenko, told Espreso TV.

Wagner mercenaries and “special forces dressed in Ukrainian uniforms” who could speak Ukrainian were active in the area, he said.