Commander of Southern Operational Command: Putin can mobilise millions, we have to be ready

The Commander of Southern Operational Command Major General Andrii Kovalchuk believes that the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin could resort to a full mobilisation in Russia and send millions to war. 

Source: Kovalchuk in an interview to Sky News 

Details: Kovalchuk does not rule out the possibility that the Russian President can order a full mobilisation in Russia, and millions of men will be sent to the front. 

"I think that Putin is considering it. And we cannot rule out this possibility. We have to be ready", he said.

At the same time, the General Major believes that Ukraine can handle such a large-scale invasion. 

"Undoubtedly yes. I believe that our position and that of our partners have to be adamant. If Putin carries out a full mobilisation, our partners are ready to provide us with all the means to stop not an army of 300,000 men, but of one million. 

He implied that Western weapons have to become even more deadly in order to respond to such an expansion of the Russian military. 

"We need more collective weapons - not a rifle or a machine gun, nor basic ammunition but cluster munition. There is a suitable counteraction to the actions of the enemy. We are sure that we will be aided in this by our partners - those who want our victory. Because it is not Ukraine that is winning today, but the whole civilised world. And we have to win", said the General Major. 

The media outlet notes that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is one of 100 countries that signed an international Convention which prohibits the usage of cluster munition. Dozens of countries have not signed it yet, including the United States of America. 

Kovalchuk also said that Ukraine is getting ready for a possible Russian invasion from the North.

"We are considering the possibility of an invasion from Belarus at the end of February, maybe later… We are getting ready. We are conducting surveillance. We are monitoring where they cluster their personnel and equipment", he said. 

The General Major also noted that Ukraine is better prepared for a possible invasion than on 24 February. 

"We have mined particular regions and prepared strong defences on certain areas… It won’t be like on 24 February, when they just entered."

Background: 

• Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has stated that Russians will march on Kyiv again. According to him, in January or at the beginning of spring, the Russian Federation can start a large-scale attack from the East, South or the North. 
• Oleksii Reznikov, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, believes that Russian troops are preparing for a major new offensive in February next year.
• Dmytro Kuleba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, assumed that Russian troops may resume a large-scale offensive on Ukraine in January or February 2023.
• Oleksii Danilov, the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, is confident that Russia has no chances of capturing Ukrainian territory. 
• In the middle of October, Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, Commander of the Joint Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, reported that the number of mobilised the Russians have at hand is about 2 million, with a potential total of about 29 million.

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