Russia’s defence minister warns of February 24 offensive

According to the country's defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, Russia is planning a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine on February 24th.

Reznikov told French media that Russia would call for a large contingent of troops. Referring to Russia's mobilization of 300,000 troops in September last year, he claimed that numbers at the border suggest the true size could be closer to 500,000.

Reznikov said we do not underestimate our enemy. They have announced 300,000, but when we see the troops at the borders, it is much more, according to our assessments. The Guardian was unable to independently verify these figures.

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.

There has been an increase in the offensive operations of the occupiers on the front in the east of our country. The situation has become tougher, Zelenskiy said in a video address.

Reznikov said that the offensive would likely be concentrated in two areas: the country s east, which has seen heavy fighting over the past few weeks, and the south.

We think Russia will try to try something around February 24 given the fact that Russia lives in symbolism. Last week, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, warned that Russia was preparing a wave of offensives to mark the anniversary of the 24 February invasion.

He claimed Russian troops had been given the task of going beyond the borders of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Donetsk and Luhansk make up the Donbas, a region bordering Russia that President Vladimir Putin identified as a goal for takeover from the war s outset.

The governor of Luhansk Serhiy Haidai has claimed that Russian forces are expelling residents near the Russian-held parts of the front line so they can't tell Ukrainian artillery forces about troop deployments.

There is an active transfer of Russian troops to the region and they are definitely preparing for something on the eastern front in February, Haidai said.

Ukraine's defence minister was in France to meet President Emmanuel Macron and secure the purchase of air defence radars. Macron said that he had not ruled out sending European nations to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Reznikov told French media that we must be ready as soon as possible. That is why we need weapons to contain the enemy. Intelligence experts and analysts have long suggested that a renewed offensive would probably be launched by Russia before spring. Much of the fighting in the country s east has been in a state of deadlock for many weeks, with both sides enduring huge losses as they become bedded in.

At least three people were killed in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Wednesday after a Russian missile strike destroyed a residential building.

At least eight apartment buildings were damaged. One of them was completely destroyed, police said in a Facebook post. There are people who may be under the rubble. A picture of a four-storey building in Kramatorsk that had suffered major damage was posted by regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram after the attack that this country is a country with absolute evil on its borders.

In a separate tweet, Zelenskiy wrote: The only way to stop Russian terrorism is to defeat it.