Russian plans to renew offensive operations in spring – White House
Russia is using the winter period to replenish personnel and rearm in order to resume offensive operations in Ukraine in the spring.
Source: Ukrinform news agency, citing John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications
Quote: "What we see is that the Russians continue to conduct offensive operations in the Donbas area. The fighting around Bakhmut remains pretty vicious."
Details: At the same time, Kirby expressed the US assessment that Vladimir Putin would try to take advantage of these winter months to restock, resupply, rearm, contribute to his manpower in "renewed offensive operations come spring."
Kirby emphasised that the USA and other allied countries have increased the supply of military aid to Ukraine during the last weeks "to help them [Ukrainians – ed.] prepare for whatever the Russians might be planning in the spring."
According to Kirby, as the weather improves, "the fighting will probably get more vicious."
Background:
- Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Defence Minister, has stated that the country's defence forces expect Russian offensive operations before the symbolic date of 24 February, when the full-scale invasion began; however, he urged people to trust only official information.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russians want to try to recoup last year's failures in February, but Ukraine must survive.
- The Financial Times, citing an unnamed adviser to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reported that Russia plans to launch a new large-scale offensive within the next 10 days.
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