Russia says it has moved additional forces to the border with Ukraine
Russia has transferred additional forces and assets to the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine for border protection and security, the region’s security governor Roman Starovoit said, Interfax news agency reports.
Local authorities say the region has come under repeated Ukrainian shelling since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago. Part of the Russian troops entered from the Kursk region, but the territories of northeastern Ukraine they captured have since been retaken by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Kursk region borders the Sumy region of Ukraine, which, according to the authorities, regularly reports Russian shelling.
The day before, Bloomberg reported that Russia is preparing a new offensive. According to the publication’s sources close to the Kremlin, the new offensive can begin as early as February-March – before Kyiv releases tanks from the USA and Europe.
Intelligence revealed what Russia’s new offensive could be – the situation in the east of Ukraine will remain the hottest, after the representative of the press service of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense Andriy Yusov.
At the beginning of January, Oleksiy, Secretary of the NSDC Danilov said that there are signs that Russia is preparing an escalation in February.
Russia’s large-scale war against Ukraine
February 24, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine on the ground and in the air along the entire length of the common border. The territory of Belarus was used for the invasion of Kyiv region with the intention of capturing the capital. In the south, the Russian army, in particular, occupied part of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, and in the north – the regions of Sumy region and Chernihiv region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the full-scale invasion a “special operation.” its primary purpose was determined by “demilitarization and denazification”, subsequently – “defense of Donbas”. And in September and early October, Russia made an attempt to annex the partially occupied Zaporizhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions. Ukraine and the West have declared that these actions are illegal. UN General Assembly on October 12 approved the resolutionwhich condemns the Russian Federation’s attempt to annex the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The Russian authorities say that the army does not attack civilian objects. At the same time, Russian aviation, missile forces, navy and artillery bombard Ukrainian cities every day. Residential buildings and objects of civil infrastructure throughout the territory of Ukraine are subject to destruction.
At the end of October, Ukraine estimated Russia’s losses in the war at over 70,000 dead soldiers. In September, Russia announced that it had lost less than 6,000 dead. In June, President Zelensky assessed the situation of losses of Ukraine and Russia as one to five.
Having not overcome the resistance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the surviving Russian units withdrew from the territory of Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions at the beginning of April. And in September, as a result of a lightning counteroffensive, the Ukrainian army liberated almost the entire occupied part of Kharkiv Oblast.
After the liberation of Kyiv region from Russian troops, facts of mass murders, torture and rape of civilians, including children, were discovered in the cities of Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel and villages of the region. The Ukrainian authorities have declared that Russia is starting a genocide. Western countries participate in the confirmation facts mass murders. The Russian Federation rejects accusations of war crimes.
Later, the facts of torture and murder of Ukrainian citizens began to be revealed in almost all settlements that were under Russian occupation. also, in Chernihiv Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast, Kherson Oblast.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed 7,068 conflicts resulting in the death of and 11,415 conflicts injuring civilians in Ukraine as a result of a full-scale Russian invasion. They are like that date organizations from February 24 to January 22.