There are conflicting opinions in Russia about whether to launch a counteroffensive in Ukraine, a senior US State Department official said on Tuesday, but reiterated that Washington would continue to support Kyiv regardless of the future scenario, Reuters reported.

“Of course, there are some (in Russia) who believe that they would like to go on the offensive against Ukraine. There are others who have real doubts about Russia’s ability to do this,” said a senior State Department official. Reporters remain anonymous.

Russia will prepare for a new major offensive against Ukraine

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an assessment on Friday that Russian forces would likely create the conditions for an attack from Belarus into Ukraine, but stressed that an invasion by Vladimir Putin’s forces from Belarus was not imminent at this point.

The head of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, told The Economist last week that Russia is preparing 200,000 troops for a major offensive that could begin in the east, south or even Belarus in January or early spring.

In this context, Russia will again try to conquer Kyiv after the failure in February of this year.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svitlana Tikhanovskaya warned Monday during Putin’s meeting with Alexander Lukashenko that the risks of Minsk sending troops into Ukraine “may increase in the coming weeks.”

It would not be the first time that there would be conflicting opinions in the Kremlin

At the same time, information about conflicting opinions appears in the context of the fact that the day before, the deputy head of military intelligence of Ukraine, Vadym Skibitsky, announced delays, including the February 24 invasion.

Thus, Russian President Vladimir Putin postponed the planned Russian invasion of Ukraine three times after consultations with the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Skibitsky said that Russia’s Federal Security Service urged Gerasimov to proceed with the invasion and that Russia had invested significant resources in its preparation.

“According to our information, the offensive was postponed for the third time to mid-February,” he said.

Three months after Russia launched a war in Ukraine in May, sources close to the Russian president told Meduza that Putin’s people are already discussing who will replace him.

“Almost no one is satisfied with Putin. Businesses and many government officials are dissatisfied with the fact that the president started the war without thinking about the scale of the sanctions – it is impossible to live normally with such sanctions,” a source of “Meduza” told in May about the mood among the Russian elites, who indicated that there is dissatisfaction with the pace of carrying out ” special operations”.

Conflicting views on whether to launch a major new offensive are also likely to arise against the backdrop of steady arms supplies to Ukraine from the West and the Kremlin’s continued failures on Ukrainian fronts.

However, Russia is not completely without allies when it comes to providing the necessary weapons to continue the war.

Russian Security Council Vice President Dmitry Medvedev says his country will increase production of “the most powerful weapons,” and all reports point to Iran supplying Russia with drones to attack critical infrastructure in Ukraine.

At the same time, there is information that the Center for Special Technologies in St. Petersburg, which manufactures Orlan-10 drones, continues to receive Western components for the manufacture of these drones, and intermediaries in the USA, China and Russia help in this. avoid sanctions imposed by the West.