A unit of Ukrainian infantry during drills on Tuesday, February 7 at a barracks in the Zaporizhzhia region. The Washington Post’s photo.
“We know they (Russian troops) are coming,” said Ukrainian infantryman Lymarenko amid the sound of rifles firing.
According to the Washington Post, Moscow is struggling to find a way to turn a war that has so far failed to achieve its stated goal. Many analysts and Ukrainian officials have recently warned that Russia is preparing to launch a decisive new major attack on Ukraine.
Where Russia will strike, however, remains a mystery. This forced Kiev to reinforce forces along a diverse and dangerous front that stretched from Belarus to the Black Sea.
From the muddy flooded battlefields in the north to fierce street fighting in the east and battles on the treeless southern prairies, each battlefield presents its own unique challenges and opportunities. both Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials warn that Russia might begin a new offensive within the next few weeks, even hours, when the calendar marks the one-year anniversary of the war between Russia and Ukraine that broke out on February 24. 2022 is coming.
Ukraine has been determined to defeat Russia and regain all territory controlled by Moscow and its pro-Russian separatists – including pasting Crimea, annexed by Russia since 2014.
The weapons that the West has just pledged to further aid Ukraine might once once more help the Ukrainians thwart the onslaught of Russia.
But until tanks, ammunition and air defense systems reach the Ukrainians, according to military experts, Ukrainian units are likely to be knocked out of the defensive positions they have established. following pushing Russia back from Kharkov and Kherson last fall.
“We are waiting for their attack,” said Andrii, a soldier fighting in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, where Russia has stepped up artillery shelling in recent days.
According to Major General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, the most potential place where Russia might focus the spearhead of its new offensive is where Andrii is stationed, in the heart of the Donbass.
Moscow is believed to be pouring the bulk of its forces – Mr. Budanov estimated at 326,000 troops – into the battlefields of eastern Ukraine.
Many of these Russian soldiers entered the fierce battle in Bahkmut, in the Donetsk region.
“Their whole main task right now is to advance to the administrative border of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” Budanov said in an interview with the Washington Post.
However, the Russians are also said to be able to direct their new assault on other lands they claimed to have annexed last year, such as Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south, areas that help form the “bridge”. on land” connecting mainland Russia and Crimea.
Even a major assault on the western Rivne region, which would allow Moscow to stem the flow of Western weapons from Poland into Ukraine, is a scenario that strategists are considering.
Ukrainian commanders are watching Russian moves everywhere, trying to decipher the signs to see where and from where Russia will strike. However, regardless of how the Russian attack unfolds, the Ukrainians insist they are ready to stop the enemy.
“In February 2022, we were a peacetime army. After a year, we had a new army, new brigade, seasoned experience. We are fully capable of stopping the Russian attack,” said Yevhenii Silkin, head of strategic communications at Ukraine’s Joint Forces Command.