![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/GettyImages-1243910153-scaled-1.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Russia is planning a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, according to the country\u2019s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov.<\/p>\n
Speaking to French media, Reznikov warned that Russia would call on a large contingent of mobilised troops. Referring to Russia\u2019s general mobilisation of 300,000 conscripted soldiers in September last year, he claimed that numbers at the border suggest the true size could be closer to 500,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not underestimate our enemy,\u201d Reznikov said. \u201cOfficially, they announced 300,000, but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our assessments it is much more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukrainian servicemen fire a shell from a 2A65 Msta-B howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in a frontline in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine.
\n\u2018The big battle is coming\u2019: Ukrainian forces prepare for the war\u2019s most intense phase
\nRead more
\nThe Guardian was unable to independently verify these figures.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday evening, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces were trying to make gains that they could show on the February anniversary of their invasion, and issued a dire account of the situation in the eastern province of Donetsk.<\/p>\n
\u201cA definite increase has been noted in the offensive operations of the occupiers on the front in the east of our country. The situation has become tougher,\u201d Zelenskiy said in a video address.<\/p>\n
Reznikov said the offensive would probably be concentrated in two areas: the country\u2019s east, which has seen heavy fighting over recent weeks; and the south.
\n\u201cWe think that, given that [Russia] lives in symbolism, they will try to try something around February 24.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine\u2019s National Security and Defence Council, also warned that Russia was preparing a wave of offensives to mark the anniversary of the 24 February invasion.<\/p>\n
He claimed Russian troops had been given the task of going \u201cbeyond the borders\u201d of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.<\/p>\n
Donetsk and Luhansk make up the Donbas, a region bordering Russia that President Vladimir Putin identified as a goal for takeover from the war\u2019s outset.<\/p>\n
Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai has claimed that Russian forces are expelling residents near the Russian-held parts of the front line so they can\u2019t tell Ukrainian artillery forces about troop deployments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an active transfer of [Russian troops] to the region and they are definitely preparing for something on the eastern front in February,\u201d Haidai said.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s defence minister was in France to meet President Emmanuel Macron and secure the purchase of air defence radars. He was also lobbying European nations to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, something Macron said his country had not ruled out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia is planning a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, according to the country\u2019s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov. Speaking to French media, Reznikov warned that Russia would call on a large contingent of mobilised troops. Referring to Russia\u2019s general mobilisation of 300,000 conscripted soldiers in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184174"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184176,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184174\/revisions\/184176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}