Russian military forces are preparing to launch a new offensive in the coming weeks to increase pressure on Ukraine and improve the Kremlin's bargaining position in ceasefire talks, Ukrainian government and military experts say.
Ukrainian officials say the move could give Russian President Vladimir Putin grounds to delay discussions of ending the fighting in favor of seizing more territory, echoing his country's repeated assertions that Russia is not interested in constructive dialogue to end the conflict.
Analysts and military commanders say the Kremlin is planning a multi-pronged offensive along the entire 621-mile front line as the spring fighting season approaches.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, citing intelligence data, said that Russia is preparing for new attacks in the northeast of the country – in the Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions.
“They are dragging out the negotiation process and trying to engage the United States in endless and useless discussions about false ‘conditions’ in order to gain time and then try to seize more land,” Mr Zelensky said on Thursday during a visit to Paris.
“Putin seeks to negotiate territories from a stronger position.”
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and complete 30-day ceasefire, and the possibility of a partial ceasefire in the Black Sea has been thrown into doubt after Kremlin negotiators put forward far-reaching conditions.
Mr Putin clearly expects success on the battlefield.
“Along the entire front line, the strategic initiative is fully in the hands of the Russian Armed Forces,” Putin said Thursday at a forum in the Arctic port of Murmansk.
“Our troops, our guys are moving forward and liberating one territory after another, one settlement after another, every day.”
Ukrainian military commanders said Russia had recently stepped up its attacks to improve its tactical positions ahead of an expected larger offensive.
“They need time until May, that's all,” said Pavlo Narozhny, a Ukrainian military analyst who works with soldiers and receives intelligence from them.
In the north, Russian and North Korean forces have all but taken a major trump card from Kyiv by seizing much of Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces made a risky incursion last year.
Fighting also intensified on the eastern front in Donetsk and Zaporozhye.
Some commanders are concerned that Russia could move combat-experienced forces from Kursk to other areas in the east.
“It will be difficult. The forces from Kursk will be in high spirits from their victories there,”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
