News Desk
ISLAMABAD/KYIV: Russian forces have intensified their winter assault in eastern Ukraine by mobilising thousands of troops to the battlefield. Kyiv expects Moscow to expand its offensive with towns in the northeast and south under heavy fire.
Ukraine’s military claimed on Tuesday that 1,030 Russian troops were killed in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily toll of the war. The death toll figure could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Moscow also claimed to have killed scores of Kyiv’s troops, saying it inflicted 6,500 Ukrainian casualties in January alone.
Ukraine National Security Chief Oleksiy Danilov said on Tuesday that Moscow is expected to target the northeastern Kharkiv or southern Zaporizhzhia regions in a new thrust.
He told Reuters, “Russia would attempt to launch an offensive in either the Kharkiv or Zaporizhzhia direction,” adding, “How successful they’ll be will depend on us.”
On Tuesday evening, the Ukrainian military said that over 30 towns and villages in Kharkiv and 20 communities in Zaporizhzhia came under Russian attacks.
Moscow to launch new offensive: Kyiv
Ukraininan President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top Ukrainian officials have warned that Moscow will attempt to launch another major offensive with freshly mobilised troops in the coming weeks as the war’s first anniversary nears on February 24.
After Russia failed to capture Kyiv and other setbacks in 2022, Moscow is now fully utilising the hundreds of thousands of troops in its first mobilisation since World War Two.
