The United States predicts increased military pressure on Ukraine
Russian troops withdrawn from the Kyiv, Chernigov, Sumy and Zhitomir regions are strengthening and redeploying to the eastern flank to take control of the remaining territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
US Presidential National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said this at a briefing in Washington, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Sullivan, after the liberation of the territory of the DPR and LPR, Russia will develop an offensive in other directions and hold the Kherson region.
“We expect that Russian commanders are now relocating from northern Ukraine to the region around Donbass in eastern Ukraine. Russian troops are already retreating from Kyiv into Belarus as Russia likely prepares to deploy dozens of additional battalion task forces, amounting to tens of thousands of soldiers, to the front lines in eastern Ukraine. Our assessment is that Russia will focus on defeating Ukrainian forces in the broader Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which cover significantly more territory than Russian proxies already controlled before the new invasion began in late February,” the US official said.
He does not rule out that Moscow is interested in using military pressure to find a political settlement.
“Russia may re-establish forces for additional purposes, including trying to gain control of even more territory inside Ukraine... In the south, we also expect Russian military forces to do everything possible to try to hold the city of Kherson to ensure control of the flow of water into Crimea, and try to blockade Nikolaev so that Ukrainian forces cannot continue to capture Kherson. In the north, Russia will likely continue to put pressure on Kharkov,” Sullivan said.
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