The Russians are preparing about 200,000 new troops, the Ukrainian general said.
Kyiv:
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces expects a new Russian attack on Kyiv in the first months of 2023, according to an interview with The Economist published on Thursday.
Much of the fighting has recently been concentrated in the east and south, but General Valeriy Zaluzhny told the British weekly that the capital would be targeted again.
A “very important strategic task is to build up reserves and prepare for the war that may take place in February, at best in March and at worst at the end of January,” he said in a Dec. 3 interview published on Thursday
“The Russians are preparing about 200,000 new troops. I have no doubt that they will have another test in Kyiv,” he said in the interview.
“We have done all the calculations: how many tanks, artillery we need and so on.”
At the end of February, Moscow sent its forces into Ukraine with the aim of quickly capturing Kyiv.
In a victory for the Ukrainian army, the invaders were held several tens of kilometers from the capital before withdrawing from the region in late March and early April.
The general said his current problems included “holding this (border),” which runs from south to east, “and not losing any more ground” after pushing the Russians back from the Kharkiv region in the northeast to September and Kherson in September. south last month.
For Zaluzhny, the Russians have been bombing energy infrastructure since October after a series of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield because they “need time to gather resources” for a broad offensive in the coming months.
“I’m not an energy expert, but it seems to me that we’re on the edge,” he said, saying the destruction of the power grid was “possible” from missile and drone attacks.
The waves of power grid attacks that have already occurred have caused massive power outages across the country, leaving millions of Ukrainians in the cold and dark of winter.
“I know I can beat this enemy,” the general continued. “But I need resources.
“I need 300 tanks, 600-700 ifvs (infantry fighting vehicles) 500 howitzers.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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