Offensive from Belarus to take place, Ukraine to react in advance - military expert Kopchak

Volodymyr Kopchak, the head of the South Caucasian branch of the Army Research Center, said this on Espreso.

“Lukashenko promised Putin a long time ago that he would enter into a ground operation with his troops in one form or another. But he was just as unpleasantly surprised as the Kremlin by the development of the Russian armed offensive in Ukraine. There is a paradoxical moment - the less success the Russian Federation has in Ukraine, the more the Kremlin needs this offensive, and the less Lukashenko wants to fulfill his promise. I believe this will happen,” he said.

Kopchak hopes that the Ukrainian Defense Forces at the level of all intelligence formats will know how the situation will develop and what the dynamics of the group's growth will be in various directions.

“Ukraine will be able to react to preemption.  The crossing of the border by Belarusians or troops of the Joint Forces will cause both retaliatory strikes and pre-emptive strikes on military facilities in Belarus,” the expert concluded. 

• On December 24, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, Kyrylo Budanov, said that currently the probability of a second attack from the territory of Belarus remains low, but it remains. 

• On December 24, the commander of the United Forces of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Serhii Naiev, said that the Russian forces had brought three battalions of the First Tank Army located in Belarus to the border with Ukraine.