By Jack Guy, Yulia Kesaieva, Mick Krever, Jonny Hallam and Josh Pennington, CNN
Russia favors a “maximum escalation” of the war in Ukraine, possibly in the coming weeks, according to a senior Ukrainian national security official.
“These will be decisive months in the war,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council, told Sky News in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
“I am that the important fights are still to come and that they will take position this year, in two or three months,” he said.
“Russia is preparing for maximum escalation. He is collecting everything possible, doing exercises and workouts. When it comes to an offensive from other directions, for now, I can say that we exclude any situation in the next two or three weeks.
Ukrainian officials have been wary for some time against a new Russian offensive and have called on Western allies for tougher weapons to counter the threat.
Following Danilov’s comments, a Ukrainian army spokesman said Wednesday there were signs that Russia was preparing for a new offensive in southern Ukraine.
“Not on land, but also at sea and in the air,” Natalia Humeniuk, head of the United Press Center for the Coordination of Security and Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, told state television.
Ukrainian intelligence has noted adjustments in the activity of Russian naval forces in the Black Sea, he added.
“It’s going up and down rapidly, and missile carriers come and go,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that it will hold another week of joint army training with Russia.
“During the week, representatives of the two countries’ military will exercise to jointly plan the use of troops based on the past of armed conflicts of recent years,” the ministry said in a statement.
In recent weeks, Western allies, as well as Germany, the United States and Britain, vowed to send tanks to Ukraine to help their forces fight a Russian offensive expected to begin in the spring.
Germany committed to 14 Leopard 2 tanks, the UK committed to 14 Challenger 2 tanks and the US committed to 31 Abrams.
However, the delivery of Ukrainian tanks and troops in their use will take time.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said his Leopard 2s would succeed in Ukraine until the end of March, while British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Challenger 2s will arrive in Kyiv “in this part of the summer. “And on Jan. 26, the Pentagon’s deputy press Secretary Sabrina Singh said deliveries of the Abrams tanks will take “months. “
Ukrainian officials have also asked for fighter jets, but their request has gone unanswered.
On January 30, US President Joe Biden reiterated that Washington would send its F16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also said he had no plans to send fighter jets to Kyiv.
El-CNN-Wire™
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