Ukraine says Russia is preparing 200,000 new troops to attack Kyiv

Kyiv:

The Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces predicted a new Russian attack on Kyiv in the first months of 2023, according to an interview with The Economist published Thursday.

Much of the fighting has focused in the east and south of late, but General Valery Zaluzhny told the British weekly that the capital would be targeted again.

“The very important strategic task is to build up reserves and prepare for a war that might happen in February, at best in March, and at worst at the end of January,” he said in a December 3 interview published Thursday. )”.

“The Russians are preparing about 200,000 new soldiers,” he said in the interview. “I have no doubt they will go through another round in Kyiv.”

“We have done all the calculations – how many tanks and artillery we need and so on.”

At the end of February, Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine with the aim of quickly capturing Kyiv.

In a victory for the Ukrainian army, the invaders were held tens of kilometers from the capital before withdrawing from the region at the end of March and early April.

Among his current problems, the general said, were “holding that (front) line that runs from south to east,” and not losing any more ground “after driving the Russians out of the Kharkiv region in the northeast in September and Kherson in the south last month.”

For Zaluzhny, the Russians have been bombing the energy infrastructure since October after a series of humiliating battlefield setbacks because they “need time to gather resources” for a full-scale offensive in the coming months.

“I am not an expert in the field of energy, but it seems to me that we are on the edge of the abyss,” he said, noting that the destruction of the electricity network was “possible” through missile and drone strikes.

The waves of attacks on the power grid that have already occurred have caused major blackouts across the country, leaving millions of Ukrainians in the bitter cold and winter darkness.

“I know I can defeat this enemy,” the general continued. “But I need resources.

“I need 300 tanks, 600-700 infantry fighting vehicles and 500 howitzers.”

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by the NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)