Published: Just now
The world is waiting for Putin’s announcement that the major offensive has begun.
It may never come.
Russia is believed to have already sneaked into action its new attack plan.
More intense fighting in several locations around the Ukrainian defense lines, higher numbers of reported casualties and reports of better-trained Russian units appearing among the newly recruited soldiers on the battlefield.
There are several signs that Russia has launched its expected major offensive in Ukraine.
– It will slowly grow, grow, grow and then culminate, says analyst Gustav Gressel to Newsweek.
No D-Day
– We see how they group themselves along the existing lines. They will continue to reinforce them and it will get worse for the Ukrainians day by day.
Several international experts the newspaper spoke to suspect that Russia will act differently this time. One does not expect a televised speech in which Putin announces that the major offensive is under way just before troops pour over the border.
– There may not be a “D-Day” when the Russian side officially launches a massive offensive, says Mark Voyger, former adviser to the American commander of the forces in Europe.
He suspects that the Russians are now spreading troops across the entire front in order to then launch repeated attack waves against selected parts of the Ukrainian defense lines.
“Possibly, the Russians have come to the conclusion that this smaller stream of troops applying constant pressure on the Ukrainian defenses is more beneficial than massive assaults by larger units,” Voyger says. to Newsweek.
Fierce battles in important city
Similar thoughts come from the Ukrainian side.
– Russia is preparing for the return match. I think it has already started or maybe not fully. We’ll see in the next few weeks, President Zelenskyy told Fox News a week ago.
It is stated from the Ukrainian side that Russian troops are attacking harder and more intensively in several directions along the eastern front, writes The New York Times.
The fiercest fighting in recent days has occurred around the town of Kreminna. According to the governor Serhiy Haidai, the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian positions increased dramatically.
The newspaper writes that Kreminna is likely to be more strategically important than Bachmut, where Russia has spent considerable effort in recent months to conquer.
Persistent storm
Should the Russians take Kreminna, the road is open to Lyman in the west and Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the southeast.
Yuriy Fedorenko, the commander of a Ukrainian unit fighting in the east of the country, says the constant Russian artillery fire is like a “sustained storm”.
– The enemy is spreading out its maximum number of soldiers, material and artillery in an attempt to break through our defenses, he says on Ukrainian television, but adds that Ukraine is still holding its defense lines.