Russian troops are preparing for a “covert mobilization” in the east of the Donetsk region, CNN reported on the official page of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Thursday.

“Russia is preparing for masked mobilization in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk region. In particular, in the city of Horlivka, all budgetary and communal institutions were obliged to submit lists of necessary persons to the occupation military commissariat. All these persons will be checked by the enemy’s special commissions, with subsequent enrollment in the ranks of the enemy,” the message reads.

Russian troops continue “active reconnaissance and preparations for an offensive in several directions,” the report said, adding that “offensive actions” continue in Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyiv, and Novopavliv.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that Russia plans to use the declared annexations as an excuse to recruit Ukrainians to the occupied territories. In October, the military said Russian forces were conducting door-to-door checks in the occupied territories looking for young men of draft age.

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 reported.

“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.

According to the Ukrainian president, “the dream of a peaceful Europe can be realized only with Ukraine and only by defeating Russia and its aggression.”

The joint press conference of the two leaders took place immediately before the working meeting of the team led by the head of the European Commission, accompanied by 14 commissioners and the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell and Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

A large-scale Russian offensive is expected

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.

In an interview with the French TV channel BFMTV, Oleksiy Reznikov suggested that the Russian offensive could begin a few days before February 24, the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Many signs point to the preparation of an offensive by the Russian side. In addition to the actual movement of Russian troops trained in Belarus, where the mobilized ones especially train, and various disinformation launched in the public space, which is intended to sow panic and create the impression that Russia is preparing to attack from all sides. There are also indirect signs, according to some Ukrainian experts cited by Unian.

According to them, since February 11, the mobile Internet has been suspended in the Luhansk region in order to prevent a possible “Ukrainian agent” in the area from transmitting operational data from the location to Kyiv, that is, to reduce the possibility of “leaking information” about the location of Russian troops in the area, before the start of attack

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