The head of the Kharkiv garrison and Brigadier General Serhii Melnyk said that the Russian troops may attack Kharkiv again when the ground freezes, and will try to cut it off from Kyiv. He informed Nos.nI about this.
"As soon as the ground freezes, the Russians will attack, expects the commander of the Kharkiv Military District in the east of the country, General Serhii Melnyk. In addition to the attack on Kyiv, he also expects that another ground attack awaits his city," the publication states.
According to Melnyk, groups of 10-20 Russian soldiers are already crossing the border to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage.
At the same time, he believes that the Russian army will try to cut off Kharkiv from Kyiv, so that the Armed Forces of the Donbass will not be able to advance west to help the capital.
Also, the general does not rule out that they will attack the west of Ukraine in the direction of the cities located between Kyiv and the Polish border.
"The goal would be to cut off the supply of Western weapons," the publication quoted him as saying.
In addition, Melnyk suggests that the Russian Federation can now gather "much more" than 200,000 soldiers to attack Ukraine. He also predicts that the Russian military will be poorly armed and poorly trained, like many of the newly mobilized.
At the same time, military analyst and former employee of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleg Zhdanov does not believe that the Russian Armed Forces will go on the offensive as soon as the ground becomes frozen enough to withstand tanks.
According to his estimates, there are 10,000 Russian soldiers on the Belarusian border who may move towards Kyiv. He also believes that the Ukrainian army should start paying attention to increasing the number of Russian troops there to 50-70 thousand people.