The head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhnyi, believes that Russia will try again to seize Kyiv after its previous attack was repelled earlier this year.

In an interview with The Economist, General Valery Zaluzhnyi said that he is trying to prepare because, in his opinion, Russian forces will try to capture the city of Kyiv again, possibly in February or March.

Russia is planning a new major offensive in early 2023

Answering a question about Russia’s mobilization of 300,000 reservists and ex-servicemen, he said that it worked.

• “They may not be as well equipped, but they are still a problem for us. According to our estimates, they have a reserve of 1.2 to 1.5 million men… The Russians are preparing about 200,000 new troops. I have no doubt that they will try to conquer Kyiv again,” Zalizhnyi said, The Guardian reports.

• “It is not true that their problems are so serious that these people will not fight. They want. The tsar tells them to fight, and they fight,” the Ukrainian general emphasized.

The 49-year-old general made a comparison with the Second World War and said that “new resources are being prepared somewhere beyond the Urals.”

• “According to my calculations, he had to accumulate resources: people, equipment, ammunition for three and a half to four years. I believe they had the resources to achieve their goals in three months. The fact that they have exhausted these resources and squandered their potential to almost no effect shows that they have chosen the wrong position. Now he has to think again how to get out of this situation.
• “Then they are most likely looking for ways to stop [luptele] and rest by any means necessary: ​​bombing civilians while leaving our wives and children to freeze to death. They need time for one purpose: they need time to gather resources and build new capacity so that they can continue to achieve their goals.
• “In my opinion, I’m not an energy expert, but it seems to me that we are on the edge. The balance is unstable. And if [rețeaua electrică] collapses…then the soldiers’ wives and children begin to freeze. And such a scenario is possible. What mood will the fighters have, can you imagine? Without water, light and heat, can we talk about the preparation of reserves for the continuation of the struggle?”

• In January, but most likely in the spring, the Russian Federation may launch a major offensive from Donbas in the east, from the south, or even from Belarus. according to him.

Also, in an interview with The Guardian, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stated that Ukraine is now able to successfully defend itself against Russian missile attacks targeting key infrastructure, including the energy grid. evidence emerged that the Kremlin is preparing a new large-scale offensive.

The message from Ukrainian officials appears to be part of a broader, coordinated effort to warn against blustering Western allies and highlight the continuing threat posed by Russia.

“There are people in Ukraine, but we need weapons”

Zaluzhny said the generals had determined how many tanks, artillery and soldiers they needed to repel another joint attack by Russian forces. According to him, the Russian command took the soldiers beyond the range of the American-made HIMARS systems, and Ukraine does not have a longer range.

Thus, if, according to Zalizhny, the Ukrainian army has enough people, then it needs more weapons.

• “We have enough people and I can clearly see what I have. I have enough. I don’t need another hundred thousand.
• “We need tanks, we need armored vehicles, BMP. And ammunition is needed…”, Zaluzhny said when asked whether Ukraine needs a new wave of mobilization, Ukrainian Pravda reports.

Russia wants a long war

At the same time, Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov said on Thursday that Russia is trying to turn the war in Ukraine into a long-term military confrontation and is training new soldiers on the territory of Belarus, Reuters reports.

• Since December 8, Russia has sent “at least” 60 additional military vehicles to Belarus

• “The Kremlin… is trying to turn the conflict into a prolonged armed confrontation,” Gromov said.

At the same briefing, Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar warned against allowing the installation to relax after the latest failures of the Russian army.

• “We and the world must not relax, because the ultimate goal of the Russian Federation is to conquer all of Ukraine, and then it can move on.”

Ukrainian officials have described the Kremlin as a desperate attempt to reverse recent military setbacks, including the retreat from Kherson after months of occupation, and win victories to justify the war to the Russian public.

The Kremlin has never fully defined the goals of its February 24 invasion, which it says was in part aimed at protecting the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military has said that Moscow is now focused on the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiyivka, but Russian forces are shelling Kherson daily and are trying to gain a foothold in southeastern Ukraine in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Russia, which has also attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, rules out a Christmas ceasefire. Gromov also dismissed the possibility of a ceasefire during the festive New Year period.

• “There will be a total ceasefire only when there is no occupier left on our land,” he said.

Gromov noted that since mid-October, Russia has strengthened its military presence in Belarus, where it is training new units and restoring the combat capability of old units, and has also relocated military aviation to the territory of its ally.

Although Zaluzhnyi considers an attack from Belarus possible, Gromov says that the probability of such an attack from Russia “remains low.”

“This first of all indicates that the enemy is increasing its capabilities to carry out airstrikes on the territory of Ukraine,” he said, but added that the probability of a Russian attack from Belarus “remains low.”