Russia warns it will ‘attract the world’s attention’
Russia’s top diplomat issued a chilling warning on Thursday that Moscow ‘will do everything’ to ‘catch the world’s attention’ on the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine – as the Kremlin prepares to launch a new offensive with up to 500,000 conscripts.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that Moscow will take big steps to overshadow anti-Russian events allegedly planned by the West to mark the February 24 war anniversary.
“Our diplomacy will do everything to ensure that the anti-Russian sabbats scheduled for the end of February – as if they coincide with the anniversary of the special military operation, both in New York and in places other than the West is currently actively working together with the Kyiv regime – so that these are not the only events that will capture the attention of the world,” the country’s top envoy said in a wide-ranging interview with state television Russia 24 and RIA Novosti.
Vladimir Putin’s chief representative has revealed that Russia is working on ‘reports’ detailing the events of the past year surrounding the invasion of Ukraine, including allegations of ‘direct involvement’ by the US in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Lavrov offered no evidence of US involvement in the pipeline explosions, which Russia had previously blamed on the UK.
Lavrov’s slashing comes just three weeks before the world marks the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv expects Putin to “try something” on February 24, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told French network BFM.
According to Reznikov, Russia has massed “nearly 500,000 troops” in preparation for the impending assault, which the minister said could take place on two fronts: in the Donbas region in the east and in the south.
“Officially they announced 300,000 (conscripts) but when you see the troops on the borders, according to our assessments it’s much more,” Reznikov said in the TV interview Wednesday night.
The minister said the Ukrainian military would work to prepare for a counter-offensive ahead of Russia’s push, adding that Ukraine “cannot lose the initiative” on the battlefield.
He stressed Kyiv’s urgent need to obtain new weapons from its Western allies without delay.
“We tell our partners that we too must be ready as soon as possible,” Reznikov said.
President Biden has ruled out supplying F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which the country has requested. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday the goal of US aid was to increase Ukraine’s military capabilities by sending artillery, armor and air defense, and training Ukrainian troops.
The United States “is focused on providing Ukraine with the capability it needs to be effective in its next counteroffensive, scheduled for the spring,” Austin said.
“And so we’re doing everything we can to give them the capabilities they need right now to be effective on the battlefield,” he said.
Washington is reportedly preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $2.2 billion, which is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time.
Lavrov said Russian forces would respond to the delivery of long-range weapons by trying to push Ukrainian troops further from the borders.
“We are now seeking to push Ukrainian army artillery back to a distance that will not pose a threat to our territories,” he added. “The greater the range of weapons supplied to the Kyiv regime, the more we will have to push them back from the territories that are part of our country.”
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said in its latest update Wednesday that Ukraine’s top military brass predict Russian forces will attempt to capture Donetsk and Lugansk provinces. , which make up the disputed Donbass region.
ISW analysts say Putin may also be considering cross-border raids in northeastern Ukraine to pin Kyiv forces against northern border areas to distract them from eastern front lines.
The think tank previously said Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has been the bloodiest in recent months, was “imminent”.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in an interview with Sky News on Tuesday that the next two to three months will be “definitive” in the war.
“Russia is preparing for maximum escalation,” Danilov said. “It’s putting together everything possible, doing drills and training.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Putin marked the 80th anniversary of the Soviet World War II victory over Nazi German forces in the Battle of Stalingrad, and invoked the long and grueling fight – considered the bloodiest in Europe. history – as justification for the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin laid a wreath in front of the eternal flame at the memorial complex to fallen Red Army soldiers in Volgograd, the current name of the city, where some 2 million people lost their lives in five months between August 1942 and February 1943.
Afterwards, he said, “Now, unfortunately, we see that the ideology of Nazism, in its modern form, in its modern manifestation, once again poses direct threats to the security of our country. Again and again we are forced to repel the aggression of the collective West.
Referring to Germany’s recent decision to supply advanced Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, Putin warned that “a modern war with Russia will be quite different for them.”
“It’s unbelievable, but it’s a fact: they are threatening us again with German Leopard tanks with crosses painted on their armour,” Putin said.
“And they will again fight Russia on the territory of Ukraine at the hands of Hitler’s supporters, the Banderites,” he said, referring to Ukrainian nationalist leader of World War II, Stepan Bandera, who was widely considered a Nazi collaborator.
With post wires
