Kremlin's new offensive strategy, war until 2026: Ukrainian general comments on Russia's ability to attack

This opinion was expressed by Mykola Malomuzh, General of the Army of Ukraine, Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine in 2005-2010, on the Espreso TV channel.

"Strategically, Putin has lost his plan to capture our country, so today he is developing a new model. The main point is that a protracted war can exhaust Ukraine, sow distrust among allies or fatigue. Amid this, the Russian president, having generated reserves for 2 or 3 years, will formulate a new offensive strategy," he said.

"Today, they are guided by the decision of the Defence Ministry's board, which was held in December 2023, on a protracted war until 2026. The main strategy will be not only to conduct individual counterattacks, but to deploy large-scale breakthrough formats in individual offensives, Malomuzh noted.

"Initially, this was determined for the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna direction. We devalued the enemy's efforts there, pushing them back to their original positions, and even conquered some areas," he added.

According to the general, the concentration of Russian forces is resuming, directly on Putin's instructions.

"Just yesterday, winter offensive operations began on Lyman. They moved with both armoured forces and airborne troops, a large number of artillery and armoured vehicles were involved. But our forces are holding them back. We were expecting such attacks in this area. Today, we are taking very active countermeasures to destroy them, especially armoured vehicles," said the General of the Ukrainian Army.

"Thanks to our Western partners, we have the means to destroy the enemy. The Ukrainian Armed Forces inflict huge losses on the Russian army every day, he noted.

"If we talk about the entire eastern sector, it is about 1,000 units per day. In a month, this is 12 destroyed enemy brigades. This powerfully undermines all enemy positions. Therefore, the enemy has no chance of launching a major offensive operation during this period," Malomuzh said.

He spoke about other powerful sectors where the Ukrainian Armed Forces are targeting the Russian enemy. 

"The Russian Federation's task near Lyman today is to unblock Ukrainian forces near Andriivka, Klishchiivka and Chasiv Yar to push Ukrainian troops away from Bakhmut, as we are now on the heights. However, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are striking both at the enemy's Bakhmut group and at the reserves that were sent to unblock it, which is about 40,000 Russian soldiers, hundreds of tanks, armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles trying to attack from this sector," he said.

The third sector under Putin's special control is Avdiivka. Initially, he set the task to capture Avdiivka before the new year. Now he is setting the goal to capture Avdiivka at least by the end of the winter and then move on to capture the entire Donetsk region, Malomuzh said.

"The Ukrainian armed forces have devalued all these areas. They are constantly attacking from the flanks and rear. Powerful artillery and long-range missile systems are hitting the reserves that Russia is bringing here," he concluded.

• Earlier, Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Yevhen Ievlev expressed his opinion on the war until 2026. According to him, Ukraine should prepare for a long war and continue to liberate the territories occupied by Russia.