Russia wants revenge at the end of February and the beginning of spring and will try to capture eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a news conference after the EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv on February 3, 2023, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
“It wants to take the east”
“Russia wants revenge. It wants revenge exactly where it didn’t succeed. It wants to take the east,” Zelenskyy said.
He said Ukrainian intelligence and the military expected Russian pressure in the east to increase, and that Russia would also seek revenge for its defeat near Lyman last autumn.
A warning to the rear
Zelenskyy also criticised what he described as a relaxed mood in some Ukrainian cities, calling it a sign of weakness. He urged people to remember the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Context
The warning came as Russia stepped up offensive operations in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, including around Bakhmut and Vuhledar, after mobilising hundreds of thousands of additional troops in the autumn. Ukraine was awaiting deliveries of Western tanks and armoured vehicles pledged in January.
The EU-Ukraine summit, the first held in Kyiv since the invasion, brought European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel to the capital.
Sources
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