Half as many Russians near Ukrainian border now than before offensive on Kyiv in February – General Staff

There are currently only 22,000 Russian servicemen near the Ukrainian borders in Belarus and the Bryansk and Kursk oblasts of Russia. This is half the number of military personnel than before the full-scale invasion on 24 February and the offensive on the city of Kyiv.

Source: Brigadier-General Oleksii Hromov, Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Quote: "The situation along the state border of Ukraine with the Republic of Belarus remains controlled and stable. The enemy continues to increase its level of training, conducting training on Belarusian training grounds, where currently there are up to 11,000 military personnel and more than 400 units of armed military equipment belonging to the occupying country.

Today, the group of Russian troops deployed in Belarus, in the Russian oblasts of Bryansk and Kursk oblasts, is half the size of the group that was used for the offensive on Kyiv in February of this year: 22,000 as against 45,500 occupiers.

Even if all Belarusian combat units from the Ground Forces and Special Operations Forces are involved, the Joint Grouping of the aggressor's forces will number about 30,000 people, which is still less than that which participated in the full-scale invasion."

Details: As of 29 December, Russia removed all stocks of ammunition for artillery systems and rocket launcher systems from Belarusian territory that had been created in Russia’s interests on the eve of the attack on Ukraine, Hromov added. 

According to Hromov, Minsk has limited capacity to supply the offensive group of troops with ammunition from its territory.

"The prospects for involving the Armed Forces of Belarus in the war in Ukraine depends directly on the ability of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to advance on the Donetsk front, as well as on the activity of the actions of the Defence Forces of Ukraine," Hromov said.

Hromov added that the Russian Federation is expanding its control over military airfields in Belarus.

Additional work to equip the Machulishchy, Baranavichy and Luninets airfields and adjacent infrastructure is underway.

"Machulishchy is planned to be turned into a key logistics hub for the needs of the Russian Armed Forces," Hromov stated.

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