
BREAKING WORLD WAR III NEWS–2 STORIES IN 1–WW3 FEARS GO THROUGH THE ROOF AS PUTIN THREATENS TO EXPAND WAR TO EUROPE; Putin ratchets up military pressure on Ukraine as he expects American and Western support for Ukraine to fall off.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambiguous rhetoric concerning the expansion of Russia’s conflict against Ukraine to other states is intensifying fears of a potential World War 3 outbreak.
In a recent interview with VRT News, Belgium’s Chief of Defence, Michel Hofman, has raised the alarm over the escalating threat posed by Russia to Eastern European nations.
Hofman highlighted Russia’s unsettling shift to a war economy and expressed deep concern about the Kremlin’s language, emphasising the need for vigilance. “I think we are right to be concerned. The language used by the Kremlin and by President Vladimir Putin is always ambiguous,” he said during the interview.
“It is possible that they might open a second front at some point in the future, in Moldova, or in the Baltic states.”
Highlighting the similarities with the current crisis in Ukraine, Admiral Hofman called upon European nations to exercise heightened vigilance. He pointed out that Moldova and the Baltic nations — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — stand out as the most probable targets on Russia‘s strategic agenda.
Acknowledging the ambiguity in Putin’s language, Hofman stressed the imperative for European nations to demonstrate their ability to defend themselves against potential aggression.
Despite NATO’s presence in the area, heightened tensions persist, especially concerning Moldova, which shares a border with Ukraine.
Source:express
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Putin ratchets up military pressure on Ukraine as he expects Western support for Kyiv to dwindle
After blunting Ukraine’s counteroffensive from the summer, Russia is building up its resources for a new stage of the war over the winter, which could involve trying to extend its gains in the east and deal significant blows to the country’s vital infrastructure. Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be hoping that relentless military pressure, combined with changing Western political dynamics and a global focus on the Israeli-Hamas war, will drain support for Ukraine in the nearly 2-year-old war and force Kyiv to yield to Moscow’s demands. “As far as the Russian leadership is concerned, the confrontation with the West has reached a turning point: The Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed, Russia is more confident than ever, and the cracks in Western solidarity are spreading,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow with Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, in a recent analysis.
After blunting Ukraine’s counteroffensive from the summer, Russia is building up its resources for a new stage of the war over the winter, which could involve trying to extend its gains in the east and deal significant blows to the country’s vital infrastructure. Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be hoping that relentless military pressure, combined with changing Western political dynamics and a global focus on the Israeli-Hamas war, will drain support for Ukraine in the nearly 2-year-old war and force Kyiv to yield to Moscow’s demands. “As far as the Russian leadership is concerned, the confrontation with the West has reached a turning point: The Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed, Russia is more confident than ever, and the cracks in Western solidarity are spreading,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow with Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, in a recent analysis.
“The Russian military since October has been trying to seize initiative across the front in a couple of areas,” said Michael Kofman, a military expert with the Carnegie Endowment. Ukraine’s military needs to reconstitute and regenerate its combat effectiveness after a grueling five-month counteroffensive, he said. “Ukrainian forces, while motivated, are exhausted,” Kofman said in a recent podcast. “They’ve lost a lot of units of action. They’ve lost a lot of assault capable troops.”
One area where Russia has maintained steady pressure is the northeastern city of Kupiansk, a strategically important rail hub that Moscow captured early in the war and then lost in a Ukrainian counteroffensive in September 2022. While Russian forces have failed to make any significant gains in the area, Ukraine has had to maintain a significant force to protect the city. Starting in early October, Russian troops also have launched an offensive around Avdiivka, a town near Donetsk, the center of the region that was seized by Moscow-backed rebels in 2014 and illegally annexed by Russia in 2022 with three other Ukrainian regions. Ukraine has built multiple defenses in Avdiivka, complete with concrete fortifications and a web of underground tunnels, allowing them to repel fierce Russian attacks. Despite massive losses, Russian troops have inched forward steadily, seeking to envelop Avdiivka and cut Ukrainian supply lines. That battle has evolved into a gruesome grind for both parties and has been compared to the fighting for Bakhmut, the war’s longest and bloodiest battle that ended with Russia capturing it in May. The Kremlin and the Russian Defense Ministry are silent about specific plans, but some Russian war bloggers say Moscow could launch a massive offensive of its own to forge deep into Ukrainian territory. Others warn, however, that the Russian military lacks resources for any such big push, saying that would require many more troops and weapons, exposing it to the same risks that doomed initial Russian attempts to capture Kyiv and other cities in the northeast at the start of the war. In that botched attack, Russian armored convoys stretched along highways leading to the capital, becoming easy prey for Ukrainian drones and artillery. Such setbacks forced the Kremlin to switch to a defensive strategy along the front line. Putin is eager to show battlefield gains as he faces reelection in March. He said last week that Russia has 617,000 fighters in Ukraine, a number that many war bloggers see as far short of the kind of massive force needed to strike deep into Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his ground forces number about 600,000. Western observers are emphasizing the need for Ukraine to build fortified defenses like Russia has done to counter any potential big offensive by Moscow. “Ukrainians have painfully few reserves,” warned Mark Galeotti, head of Mayak Intelligence consultancy and a senior associate fellow at Royal United Services Institute in London. If Moscow manages to break through Ukraine’s defensive lines, “Russian forces could then really wreak havoc on lines of communication, lines of supply, rear supply bases,” he said. “In that context, it does make sense to allow fortification to make up for the lack of reserves,” Galeotti said in a recent podcast.
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