Not Kyiv And Not Zaporizhzhia. Defense Intelligence Forecasts Where New Russian Offensive Would Unfold In Spring And Summer

The first half of 2023 will be decisive, because Russia will try to launch a new large-scale offensive to end the occupation of the Luhansk and Donetsk Regions.

Colonel Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy chief of the Defense Intelligence, said this in an interview with Delfi.

He said that according to the assessment of the Defense Intelligence, the main activity of the occupying army will be demonstrated in Donbas.

Skibitskyi noted that the Russian army has not yet been able to complete the main task set before it - the full occupation of the Luhansk and Donetsk Regions. It is this region that will become the main battlefield in the spring and summer of 2023.

"Around February-March, there will be battles for these regions, the Russians will try to take control of Kupyansk, Svatove, Kreminna, in the direction of the Kharkiv Region," Skibitskyi said.

He emphasized that the battles for Bakhmut and Soledar of the Donetsk Region confirm this forecast.

The deputy head of the Defense Intelligence added that an attack by the Russian Federation from the territory of Belarus or from the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia Region remains extremely unlikely.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on January 11, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu replaced the commander of the group of Russian troops in Ukraine.

The current chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Valery Gerasimov, was appointed to the place of "Armageddon General" Sergey Surovikin.

According to the information of the Defense Intelligence, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin instructed Gerasimov to occupy Donbas until March 2023.