Ukraine is bracing for a possible major offensive by Russia this month, but Kyiv has reservations to stop Moscow’s forces even if not all the weapons promised by the West arrive on time, Ukraine’s defense minister said on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said at a press conference that Russia may launch another attack in February for symbolic reasons around the anniversary of the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022, but that Moscow’s resources are not ready from a military perspective. vision

On Sunday, Ukraine’s defense minister criticized the West’s “reluctance” to supply fighter jets to Ukraine for fear of an escalation of the conflict with Russia, which he said “costs more lives.”

Speaking about the “delay or reluctance” to supply these weapons to Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov assured during the press conference that Kyiv would still win, but “it will cost us more lives.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Thursday accused Russia of preparing its armed forces to “take revenge” on Ukraine, as well as on Europe, which supports Kyiv in the face of an invasion launched almost a year ago by Moscow, France Presse reports.

“Russia is concentrating its forces, we all know that. She wants to take revenge not only on Ukraine, but also on free Europe,” said the Ukrainian leader at a joint press conference with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the delegation of the European executive power on a visit to Kyiv.

In recent days, the Russian military has stepped up its attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine, claiming victories around the besieged city of Bakhmut and near Vugledar.

The realization of Ukraine’s dream of receiving fighter jets from the West is under the sign of uncertainty, the faint hope is connected with the answer of the President Emmanuel Macron that “nothing is prohibited in principle” and the pressure from the Baltic States, who are lobbying for this type. military support. Meanwhile, the United States and Germany said categorically “no”, and Britain believes that the decision to send fourth-generation aircraft is impractical.

Countries such as the United States or Germany could eventually send fighter jets to Ukraine, believes the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, who was quoted on Thursday by dpa and Agerpres.

The head of European diplomacy reminded before the Ukraine-EU summit scheduled for Friday in Kyiv that the supply of Western tanks to Ukrainian forces was initially very controversial, but in the end an agreement was reached and this “red line” was crossed.

Politico journalists wrote last week that this measure will be strongly supported, especially by the Baltic states, given that these countries, in turn, fear possible Russian aggression.

• Fighters for Ukraine, uncertainty. Between the momentum of the Baltic states, caution and the sharp “No” of the USA

Putin would have 500,000 soldiers ready for a new assault

Russian President Volodymyr Putin has ordered his army to capture the entire Donetsk region by March, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) reported the other day, the UNIAN agency reports.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Thursday that the Russians may launch a new offensive in the Donbass (a mining area consisting of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) and southern Ukraine, and this operation could involve up to 500,000 Russian troops.

Ukrainian officials say the Russian military is regrouping and preparing an imminent attack aimed at turning the tide of the war in Moscow’s favor, bolstered by hundreds of thousands of conscripts mobilized last fall.

“They officially declared about 300,000, but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our estimates, it is much more,” he said.

The Ukrainians will receive longer-range missiles

A new missile that will double Ukraine’s strike range in its war with Russia is included in a new military aid package worth more than $2.175 billion to be sent by the United States, a US official said on Friday.

The military package announced on Friday opens the door to additional deliveries of small-diameter ground-launched bombs (GLSDB), which have a range of more than 150 kilometers.

The GLSDB will exponentially increase Ukraine’s range after the US-provided High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems (HIMARS) arrive in Ukraine in late June 2022.

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Sunday that Ukraine would not use the longer-range weapons promised by the United States to strike Russian territory and would only target Russian units in occupied Ukrainian territory.

From 120 to 140 tanks in the “first wave” of deliveries

Earlier this week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said his country would receive 120 to 140 Western tanks as part of the “first wave” of supplies from a 12-nation coalition.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that Germany and its European partners plan to send two battalions of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine “rapidly”, with around 80 vehicles expected, adding that Germany will provide a company of 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks “as a first step”. “

Germany will also send the ancestor of the Leopard 2 tank to Ukraine

Norway plans to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine “as soon as possible,” with Norway’s defense minister suggesting deliveries could take place by the end of March, and according to Politico, it is considering sending eight of the 36 Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

Canada will also send four Leopard 2 main battle tanks.

Spain, which has one of the largest Leopard fleets in the EU with 347 tanks, intends to send four to six German-made Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine, according to El País, cited by Agerpres.

On January 11, Poland became the first partner country of Ukraine to announce plans to send Western-made German Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced on Friday that his country would send 60 more modernized tanks to Ukrainian forces in addition to the 14 already promised Leopard 2s.

“Well, first of all, we try to lead by example. Poland sent 250 tanks or even more a year ago, being the first country to do so,” he recalled in an interview with Canadian television CTV News regarding the Soviet-made T-72 tanks sent to Ukraine in the spring of 2022.

In the first nine months of the war, Russia spent about 82 billion dollars to support the invasion. This amount is a quarter of the annual budget of the Russian Federation, according to Forbes Ukraine’s analysis.

Putin called on Russia’s defense industry to increase production and improve the quality of equipment at a November meeting of a special council set up to try to increase supplies to the military during the war in Ukraine.