Russia has not abandoned plans to march on Kyiv – Rada Defense Committee
Russia has not abandoned plans to attack Kyiv from the territory of Belarus.
This was stated on air by Sergei Rakhmanin, a member of the Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence and a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, on Radio NV, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to Rakhmanin, the recent appearance in the skies over Belarus near Ukraine of the A-50 long-range radar detection and control aircraft and a sudden check of the combat readiness of the Belarusian troops, coupled with military maneuvers, may mean both preparation for such an operation and deception of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which are forced to keep a large group on border.
“This may mean that the Russians are still preparing for an offensive or are carrying out so-called demonstration actions, that is, they are diverting the attention of the Ukrainian military, forcing them to keep military units to cover the border so that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not have the opportunity to transfer additional resources to other directions, for example, to the Zaporozhye direction or to the Donbass,” the politician said.
“From time to time they conduct certain exercises, redeployments, move equipment back and forth, and carry out so-called mobilization actions. According to the logic of our intelligence officers, this is mainly to distract attention, but it is difficult to say that the Russians are not preparing for an attack from the north, because they are still considering this option for themselves, and there are two reasons for this.
They are not abandoning the idea of capturing Kyiv, although it is difficult for me to imagine when they will be able to create a sufficient strike force to try to do this a second time, and secondly, they have intentions to cut off Western supply routes in order to limit or make it impossible to supply Western weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Rakhmanin said.
Russia has not abandoned its plans to march on Kiev, according to the Rada's Defense Committee.