Russians prepare 200,000 soldiers, no doubt to attack Kyiv again – Zaluzhnyi

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has stated that Russians are preparing about 200,000 new soldiers; he has no doubt they will attack the city of Kyiv again.

Source: Zaluzhnyi in an interview with The Economist

Quote: "Russian mobilisation has worked. It is not true that their problems are so dire that these people will not fight. They will. A tsar tells them to go to war, and they go to war. 

I’ve studied the history of the two Chechen wars – it was the same. They may not be that well equipped, but they still present a problem for us. We estimate that they have a reserve of 1.2 million  to 1.5 million people…

The Russians are preparing some 200,000 fresh troops. I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv. "

Details: It is noted that Russia is gathering troops and weapons for a new offensive. 

In January, but most probably in spring, the Russian Federation may start a major offensive from Donbas in the east, from the south or even from Belarus.

Russian troops will try to push back Ukrainian forces and even make a second attempt to capture Kyiv.

The Economist reported that General Zaluzhnyi together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Ground Forces, has warned about several critical months ahead.

According to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russians are preparing new resources somewhere beyond the Urals, same as during World War II. 

Quote from Zaluzhnyi: "Ammunition is being prepared, not very good stuff, but still. It won’t be the same resources as it could have been in two years of ceasefire. It will not be like that. It will be lousy, and combat potential will be very, very low, even if he enlists a million more people in the army to throw bodies, like Zhukov [a senior Soviet commander during World War II] did, it will not bring the desired result anyway."

Western sources report that Sergey Surovikin, Commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, has always considered the conflict with Ukraine as one that will last many years. 

Generals of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin persistently keep training and deploying recently conscripted troops and reformatting the industry in order to help soldiers. One way of doing it, as Ukrainian commanders say, is producing artillery shells.

It is also noted that freezing the war would repeat the mistake of the three years prior to the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022: "Putin has spoken to Western leaders numerous times during these years, and they indulged him while he was preparing an army for the invasion."

Zaluzhnyi has said that Ukraine is running out of munitions for defence systems. 

American-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems that should arrive in Ukraine will be a great breakthrough for the Armed Forces of Ukraine; however, training soldiers how to use it requires some time. The publication notes that the Patriot should have been delivered several months ago.

Previously: As of the end of August 2022, according to the representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Russia has already involved about 160,000 military personnel in the war against Ukraine, not including the National Guard of Russia.

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