Russia may be setting the stage for a much bigger push while Ukraine’s air defenses are already being stretched. The 300,000 troop figure is the attention grabber. The drone attacks make it more worrying.
Ukraine Says Putin Planning Ground Offensive on Kyiv…
Russia’s military leadership had been tasked with preparing several operational scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine, with Kyiv and Chernihiv identified as key areas, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa said on Aug. 28 during a closed-door briefing with journalists, Suspilne reported.
Palisa said the information had been verified and that the Presidential Office had received it from several intelligence sources, without specifying whether they were Ukrainian or foreign.
“Indeed, several options were considered (in Russia),” Palisa said at the briefing.
“The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has developed possible response scenarios, including measures to defend, protect, and counter these actions.”
As tensions between Moscow and Europe reach boiling point, Putin is reportedly preparing to unleash a 300,000-troop “hammer blow” and crank up sabotage attacks on Nato, while issuing direct military threats aimed at Britain. The escalation comes after a diplomatic clash over British weapons technology being used inside Ukraine.
This comes after UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the UK would give Ukraine declassified blueprints allowing Kyiv to manufacture and improve long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles at home. As a result, Putin’s mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov reportedly blasted Britain for “adding fuel to the fire”.
37 Killed as Russian Drone Blitz Exposes Air Defense Gap…
Estonia spy chief: Kremlin in bad place — revolution could come overnight…
It was, perhaps, the highest praise ever offered by one intelligence agency to another – and it was certainly the most British.
As chief of MI6 in 2022, Sir Richard Moore publicly declared that “pound for pound”, the “brilliant” Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service (EFIS) “probably knock us into a cocked hat”.
Kaupo Rosin, the director general of that service, is delighted by the compliment, though he asks with polite bewilderment what this expression about cocked hats could possibly mean.
“It’s always good to see that our partners value us and our activities,” he says, after I offer assurances that Moore’s phrase was a great tribute. “But I have to say the same about the British services who are top-notch, with world-leading, excellent capabilities, and are doing an incredible job.”
I meet Rosin at EFIS headquarters in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, where it could hardly be more necessary for intelligence officers to do incredible jobs. Russia is only 130 miles away – the border is a two-hour drive down what was known in Soviet times as the M11 highway. Vladimir Putin’s home city of St Petersburg, meanwhile, is four hours away.