5m ago
10.13 GMT
Russia may be readying border closure and new
mobilisation order - Ukrainian minister
Russia’s leadership may be preparing a new
mobilisation order and could close its border to men within a week, according
to Ukraine’s defence minister.
Oleksii Reznikov addressed Russian citizens in a
video message on Friday. Speaking Russian, he warned people who might qualify
for mobilisation. “I know for a fact that you have about one week left before
you still have any choice.
“In early January, the Russian authorities will
close the borders to men, declare martial law, and begin another wave of
mobilisation. Borders will also be closed in Belarus.”
Reznikov warned that Russians living in cities
would be at particular risk.
Kryrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s
intelligence directorate told the BBC on Friday that Russia’s new mobilisation
order would start on 5 January
Ukraine fighting is deadlocked, spy chief Kyrylo
Budanov tells BBC
Kyrylo
Budanov told the BBC that the war was at a stalemate
By Hugo
Bachega
BBC News,
Kyiv
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64109024
Fighting in
Ukraine is currently at a deadlock as neither Ukraine nor Russia can make
significant advances, the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency
has said, while Kyiv waits for more advanced weapons from Western allies.
"The
situation is just stuck," Kyrylo Budanov told the BBC in an interview.
"It doesn't move."
After
Ukrainian troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November, most of
the fiercest battles have been around Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region.
Elsewhere, Russian forces appear to be on the defensive while winter has slowed
down the pace of Ukraine's ground operations across the 1,000km (620-mile)
front line.
Mr Budanov
said Russia was "now completely at a dead end" suffering very
significant losses, and he believed the Kremlin had decided to announce another
mobilisation of conscripts. But, he added, Ukrainian forces still lacked
resources to move forward in multiple areas.
"We
can't defeat them in all directions comprehensively. Neither can they," he
said. "We're very much looking forward to new weapons supplies, and to the
arrival of more advanced weapons."
Earlier
this month, after a series of Russian military setbacks, Ukrainian officials
warned about the possibility of another ground offensive by Moscow's forces
from Belarus at the start of 2023. The push, they said, could include a second
attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, and involve tens of thousands of reservists
being trained in Russia.
Mr Budanov,
however, dismissed Russia's activities in Belarus, including the movement of
thousands of troops, as attempts to make Ukraine divert troops from the
battlefields in the south and east to the north.
Recently,
he said, a train loaded with Russian soldiers stopped in a location close to
the Belarus-Ukraine border and returned, several hours later, with everyone on
board.
"They
did it openly during the day, so that everyone would see it, even if [we] didn't
want to," adding that he saw no real, imminent threat from the troops in
Belarus. "As of now, I don't see any signs of preparations for an invasion
of Kyiv or northern areas from Belarus."
The
interview in Mr Budanov's dimly lit office in Kyiv took place days after
Russian President Vladimir Putin travelled to the Belarusian capital, Minsk,
for the first time in more than three years. His visit raised speculation that
he might try to persuade President Alexander Lukashenko, a long-time ally, to
send Belarusian troops to Ukraine.
Belarus has
been used by Russian forces as a launchpad for attacks, but Mr Budanov believes
Belarusian society will not support any further involvement in the war and analysts
have questioned the level of preparedness of its 48,000-strong army.
"That's why President Lukashenko is taking all steps to prevent a disaster
for his country," he said.
Since
retaking Kherson, Ukrainian forces have been engaged in brutal fighting with
Russian troops around Bakhmut, in trench warfare that has been compared to
World War One. For Russia, capturing the city would disrupt Ukraine's supply
lines and open a route for an advance towards other Ukrainian strongholds in
the east, including Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
The
offensive, Mr Budanov said, was being led by the Wagner Group, a Russian
mercenary army. Its founder, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is believed to want to capture
the town as a political prize, amid rivalries between senior Russian officials.
Away from
the battlefields, Russia has carried out a relentless air campaign since
mid-October, targeting Ukraine's critical infrastructure with missiles and
drones, leaving millions without electricity, heating and water. Mr Budanov
said the strikes were likely to continue, but suggested Russia would not be
able to sustain the level of the attacks because of dwindling missile reserves,
and the inability of Russian industry to replenish them.
Although
Iran has provided most of the drones used in Russia's attacks, the spy chief
says it has so far refused to deliver missiles to Russia, aware that Western
countries are likely to impose measures on Tehran, already under crippling
sanctions because of its nuclear programme.
The war may
be deadlocked for now, but Mr Budanov is adamant that Ukraine will ultimately
retake all the territory now under occupation, including Crimea, the peninsula
that Russia seized in 2014. He envisages Ukraine returning to its 1991 borders,
when independence was declared with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Additional
reporting by Hanna Tsyba and Robbie Wright.
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