Russia is preparing for ‘maximum escalation,’ top Ukrainian security official says
Mike Brest
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Russia is preparing for “maximum escalation” in its war in Ukraine, according to Kyiv’s top national security official, who believes it could happen in the next two weeks.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in an interview with Sky News that aired on Tuesday, “These will be defining months in the war,” adding, “I’m conscious the main fights are yet to come and they will happen this year, within two to three months,” though he didn’t preclude a faster timeline either.
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“Russia is preparing for maximum escalation. It is gathering everything possible, doing drills and training,” he added. “When it comes to an offensive from different directions, as of now, I can say that we are not excluding any scenario in the next two to three weeks.”
A Ukrainian military spokesperson, Natalia Humeniuk, head of the United Coordinating Press Center of Security and Defense Forces of the South of Ukraine, said Wednesday that Russia could attack “not just on land, but on the sea and in air as well.”
Ukrainian and Western officials have raised the possibility of a renewed Russian offensive in the coming months as the seasons turn to spring, hence their continued calls for military aid, and quickly. Officials from the U.S., U.K., and Germany have said they will not meet Ukraine’s latest request for F-16 fighter jets, but they have frequently changed course on specific weapons systems that they had said they wouldn’t provide.
President Joe Biden said on Monday that they wouldn’t agree to the request, though on Tuesday he said he’ll be speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, presumably in the near future.
“Our partners are aware of the types of weapons we need — first and foremost, fighter jets and long-range missiles that can hit targets up to 300 km (more than 186 miles) away,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a briefing Tuesday. “These are not weapons of escalation, but rather weapons of defense and deterrence against the aggressor. We are actively negotiating to unlock all these solutions. I have instructed all our diplomats in key capitals to make this a priority.”
A White House spokeswoman said on Tuesday the Biden administration will announce a new aid package to Ukraine “soon” but did not specify when it would be announced.
Earlier this month, Biden ended a Western stalemate by agreeing to send 31 M1A2 Abrams tanks to Ukraine because Germany was unwilling to send their tanks unilaterally, even though Department of Defense officials said the sustainment and logistical requirements for the U.S. tanks made them not an ideal choice for inclusion in aid.
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National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said the U.S. tanks are “many months” away from reaching the battlefield, though the Leopard tanks should arrive by the end of March, the Germans have announced.
Kuleba said it’s too early to name all of the countries who are providing tanks to Ukraine, though he said the “first wave of contributions [to] the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive 120-140 units of modern western tanks,” according to a local Ukrainian outlet. Zelensky has said that they’ll need between 300-500 tanks to launch an offensive, while Western countries have committed 321 tanks, the outlet reported, citing Ukraine’s ambassador to France, Vadym Omelchenko.