16:38 05.04.2022

Russia expected to attack eastern and southern Ukraine in coming weeks to create land bridge to occupied Crimea – NATO Secretary General

2 min read
Russia expected to attack eastern and southern Ukraine in coming weeks to create land bridge to occupied Crimea – NATO Secretary General

In the coming weeks, the Russian Federation is expected to attack eastern and southern Ukraine to seize the entire Donbas and create a land bridge to the occupied Crimea, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

"We now see a significant movement of troops away from Kyiv to regroup, rearm and resupply. And they shift their focus to the east. In the coming weeks, we expect a further Russian push in the eastern and southern Ukraine to try to take the entire Donbas and create a land bridge to occupied Crimea. So this is a crucial phase of the war," Stoltenberg said ahead of the meetings of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Brussels on Tuesday.

The NATO Secretary General said that Russia is withdrawing not only from Kyiv, but also from most of the north of Ukraine, at least significantly reducing its presence there, due to the fact that they were defeated.

President Putin was unable to achieve the goals he set for this military operation, he said. His goal was to capture Kyiv within days. Now several weeks have passed and yet he has not been able to capture Kyiv and many cities in the north. So now he is moving many of these troops from the north to Belarus and east to Russia, Stoltenberg said.

He said that a new very concentrated Russian military offensive in Donbas is expected after that. According to him, the repositioning will take several weeks.

In this window, it is extremely important that NATO allies provide support so that we can rearm and resupply Ukrainian forces. This is what I expect the allies to do and discuss at the meeting tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, Stoltenberg said.

AD
AD
AD
AD