Russia had no intention of “invading Ukraine” in April, despite the concentration of troops along the border.
Ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili stated this in an interview with Deutsche Weli, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“These troops that were there were still not enough to invade Ukraine. For Russia to actually invade Ukraine, all of Russia's ground and air forces are needed. These several tens of thousands of people, among whom about one-third were combat-ready, were definitely not calculated. It was more of a diplomatic maneuver to see the reaction of the rest of the world and Ukrainians. But the fact that he always has enough strength to carry out internal provocation does not raise any doubt in my mind,” Saakashvili said.
According to him, the “provocation” will be carried out by the armed forces of the LDPR, whose number, according to his estimates, is 18 thousand people, and which are quite well equipped, have their own military academy and military production.
“But, of course, their activation is impossible without the direct participation of the Russian armed forces, without air cover. Especially if it is a drone war. Russia is now very actively preparing for drone warfare. If she managed to bring the drone fleet into combat order after the humiliation in Karabakh, then they will not even need to show their air forces.
There will be enough drones, because Ukrainian fortifications do not represent any secret. They are quite old-fashioned and not designed for drone warfare and targeted air strikes. Ukraine urgently needs to buy jammers and electronic defense equipment. But I don’t see that anyone is ready to give this to Ukraine. The Germans are frozen on this issue, the Americans are considering it, but it’s a whole bureaucracy,” Saakashvili complains.