Russians will expand their "great offensive" in next week or two – military expert 

Roman Svitan commented on the "great offensive" of the Russian army on Espreso TV.

"This "great offensive" began after Russian Christmas, on January 7, and on January 8 we heard about Soledar. Then, within a month, the geography of the Russian offensive expanded to cover the entire 200 km of the Donetsk-Luhansk front, from Vuhledar to Kupiansk. We now see that Vuhledar, Mariinka, Avdiivka, Bakhmut, Bilohorivka, Kreminna, Svatove and Kupyansk are on fire," noted the military expert.

The retired colonel noted that the movement will continue and the geography will expand, as the main direction of the Russian offensive was marked as Donetsk and Luhansk regions, part of Kharkiv region.

"In the next week or two, the enemy will also try to expand its geography to the Zaporizhzhia direction, to the area of Orikhove and Huliaipole, and will carry out offensives there as a distraction. By the end of February or in a couple of weeks, the main Russian forces will be moving in, and they will reach 400,000 troops, and this will be the peak, meaning that they will reach a plateau in terms of personnel growth. However, every day the intensity of the offensive will increase in arithmetic progression, which is associated with the entry of Russian troops, with the involvement of aviation," Svitan said.

• On February 17, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that during the day the enemy launched 6 rocket attacks on the civilian infrastructure of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region: 3 private and one multi-storey building were damaged.