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Intelligence suggest a significant Russian military build-up near the border of the region.
Intelligence suggest a significant Russian military build-up near the border of the region.
What is happening?
During the St. Petersburg Inernational Economic Forum (SPIEF) last week, Russian President, Vladimir Putin was one of the most prominent speakers.
And some eery answers came from the Russian Leader..
Sumy Russia’s next target?
There have been reports of Russian military build up along the Northern border of Ukraine, sparking fear that Russia will launch a new offensive in the North this summer.
Putin said Russian forces were carving out a buffer zone in the Sumy region in order to protect Russian territory.
“Next is the city of Sumy, the regional centre. We don’t have the task of taking it, but in principle I don’t rule it out,” he said according to Reuters.
125,000 troops deployed near borders
According to the ISW, Washington Post has reported that Ukrainian military intelligence warns that Russia has deployed 125,000 troops near the border of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions – both sharing a border with Russia to the Northeast.
Don’t stop with the East
While the Kremlin repeat the official ambitions of gaining complete control of the East of Ukraine, intelligence suggest that people close to Putin want Russia to take control of most of Ukraine as a whole.
New annexation coming?
According to the ISW, Russia has already conducted offensive operations in the buffer zone of Kharkiv and Sumy – most likely to set the conditions for further illegal annexations of at least Sumy.
Why Sumy?
The North Ukrainian city of Sumy is placed less than 100 kilometers from the border to the Russian region of Kursk.
That might make Putin more eager to take Sumy, as Ukrainian forces managed to invade and hold a large area in Kursk last year.
Ukraine must “accept reality”
When doing a Q&A at SPIEF, Putin explained that Ukraine does not have to surrender for the figthing to end.
But he emphazised that Moscow wanted Kiyv to accept the “reality on the ground”, if there was to be any hope of peace.
Controls 1/5 of Ukraine
Currently, Russia is in control of about 20 % of Ukraine’s territory, if yolu include the Crimean Peninsula.
Part of Russia’s demands for a peace deal is that Ukraine recogninze the five regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Crimea and Zaporizhzhia as Russian, as Russia has annexed them.
Ukraine has repeatedly denied this.
“Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps …”
Putin then went on to use use a Russian parable for the situation in Ukraine:
“Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours.”
“The whole of Ukraine is ours”
From the stage, Putin repeated his claim that Russians and Ukrainians are one people:
“In that sence, the whole of Ukraine is ours,” he said according to Reuters.