Russia is preparing a new attack in southern Ukraine. international

Russia is mobilizing troops and weapons to launch a new offensive on the Zaporizhia front in southern Ukraine. Four Ukrainian military sources warned EL PACE over the past two weeks about a major enemy movement in this area of ​​the war. Vladislav Voloshin, colonel and spokesman for the operations command of the Southern Front (Tavria), confirmed the information this Friday, but said it was still too early to determine the magnitude of the Russian operation.

“At the moment, we can only confirm that the enemy is preparing assault groups to launch attacks in small infantry groups of 5 to 10 soldiers,” Voloshin reported, and “it is also confirmed that “That they will use armored vehicles to support these attacks.” ,

Russia has reformed its military tactics over the past year to avoid large-scale attacks, which cause many material losses, and replace them with frequent attacks by small platoons that damage Ukrainian defensive positions on different flanks. Are, as this newspaper reported in the last two months of the country’s official offensive on various enclaves of the war, the Kurajov, Pokrovsk (both in Donetsk) or Zaporizhia fronts.

“The Russian people continue to throw meat to the dying. The strategy is to attack one of our positions from five or six sides, each group consisting of four or five soldiers; Many will fall, but one group will reach the objective,” Taras Mijalchuk, an officer of the 65th Mechanized Brigade, said last September. With this tactical change, human losses have not been reduced, but the aggressor is achieving its largest victory in Donbass (in the east) since the beginning of the war in 2022.

The areas where Ukrainian forces expect a Russian offensive are Hulyupol, Robotyn or Kamianske, three municipalities close to the front. This is the same area where Kiev’s unsuccessful counter-offensive took place in the summer of 2023. Their main success was the release of Robotnin. Except for this city, which is gradually being captured by the Russians, the Zaporizhia Front has been at a standstill for more than a year.

Voloshin did not specify when he estimated these new hostilities might begin, but other military sources assumed in October that it would be early November. Ideal conditions for the movement of armored vehicles occur when the autumn rainy season ends and cold weather sets in, causing the soil to harden. The Tavriya Command spokesperson also did not specify the number of enemy troops being concentrated for this operation, but other military sources indicate that it could number thousands of soldiers and at least a hundred tanks, as well as armored infantry. Is.

“It would be a massacre, we are facing a very difficult situation,” says a battalion commander in the area, who prefers to remain anonymous. Since September, his battalion has been conducting military operations to determine its level of security. have detected an increase in Russian reconnaissance groups infiltrating Ukrainian-controlled territory. In the same vein, Ukrainian news agency RBC reported on November 1,

Sources expressed surprise at the Russian ability to muster so many troops to open a new hot spot in the war. In recent weeks, the addition of more than 10,000 North Korean troops to Kremlin forces to drive Ukrainian forces from the Russian province of Kursk has made headlines. Russian regiments are making advances in that area and especially in Donetsk, while Ukrainian security lacks replacements at a time when few citizens want to join the ranks of their armed forces.

Take Donetsk and bomb Zaporizhia

Voloshin reported that the offensive could have two objectives: on the one hand, to reach the logistics lines in Dnipro province that strengthen Ukrainian forces in Donetsk, cutting them off and allowing “the complete capture of Donetsk”. Russian regiments are close to besieging the cities of Pokrovsk and Kurakhov in Donetsk province, relying on their connection with the rear in the Dnipro.

On the other hand, according to Voloshin, Russian troops want to approach the city of Zaporizhia “so that it would be easier to punish it with artillery and terrorize the population, as is happening in Kherson and Kharkiv.” In this regard, the spokesman for the military command indicated that Russia is preparing to transfer “all types of possible weapons” to the region. Russian aviation is attacking Zaporizhia with guided aerial bombs for the first time since last September. Sources in the military administration in the provincial capital explained to the EL PAÍS team in late October that they had activated plans to dynamite bridges and access roads to the city if necessary. The city, which had 700,000 inhabitants before the war, is located only 30 kilometers from the front.

RBC assures that another reason for this possible enemy attack is to divert Ukrainian troops away from the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. The town of Kamianske, where the front is located, is 50 kilometers from the nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, which will be occupied by Russian forces in 2022. RBC said the aim would be to consolidate control over the surrounding area. Headquarters with a view to future negotiations to end the war.

Fears of new Russian aggression coincide with Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential elections. The Republican candidate has delivered prolific messages during the campaign against maintaining military aid to Kiev, and has stressed that his priority as president is for quick talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to end the war. Must be forced, even if it means paying a price. Ukraine must leave the region. digital medium political public On November 6, US President Joe Biden wants to accelerate arms shipments to Ukraine in his last two months in the White House.

Zelensky assured last October that his country had received only 10% of the more than 50 billion euros of military aid that the United States Congress had approved for Ukraine last April. According to Kiev, the departure came too late, as it was authorized after more than half a year of legislative blockade by the Republican Party.