Probably not an attack from Belarus
Kyiv expects Kremlin offensive in north-east and south
02/07/2023, 11:55 p.m
Kiev’s military planners are convinced that Moscow will soon launch a new offensive in Ukraine. As a result, Russian forces are likely to strike in the Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions. An attack from Belarus is unlikely.
The Ukrainian government assumes that the soon-to-be Russian offensive it expects will affect the Kharkiv regions in the north-east and Zaporizhia in the south. Russia will try to have flagship results around the first anniversary of the war on February 24, National Security and Defense Council head Oleksiy Danilov said in a Reuters interview in Kyiv.
“They have to have something to show their people and they have a great desire to do something they see big by that date,” Danilov said. “How successful they will be depends on us.” Danilov is skeptical about assumptions by other Ukrainian officials that Moscow could also be planning an attack from the territory of its ally Belarus on north-western Ukraine. It is “doubtful that they will come from that direction” because “there are clearly not enough troops there”.
Danilov explained that in view of the Russian offensive, Kyiv primarily needs heavy tanks and artillery shells with a caliber of 155 millimeters. “A great many things depend on the supply of shells,” he said. “Because if you have guns but nothing to shoot with, then that’s a challenge.”
Danilov also said Ukraine has the right to attack targets inside Russia. “Let’s say there’s a certain point in Russia where we know for sure that a device is launching missiles at our children. Do we have to watch that point calmly and close our eyes – or destroy it if we have the capacity? ” His answer: “If there is an institution that is causing destruction in our country… we must destroy these institutions. This is war.”