Russia is planning a ‘new pre-emptive strike’ in Ukraine according to satellite photos which show Putin’s forces building up fortifications.
Moscow is said to be preparing for a new offensive ahead of the first anniversary of their invasion on February 24.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, said: ‘Now they are preparing for maximum activation, and they believe that by the anniversary they should have some achievements.
‘There is no secret that they are preparing for a new wave by February 24, as they themselves say.’
While analysis from Brady Africk, an open-source intelligence analyst, shows Russian new fortifications all along the front in Luhansk, from the Russian border down to Donetsk, and throughout Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
It comes as a video captured a single Russian tank being destroyed by a mine near Donetsk, in what may have been part of a spoiling attack ‘to disperse and distract Ukrainian forces’ to help them launch their counter-offensive.
A satellite image from March 2022 (left) and January 2023 (right) shows that Russia is building new lines of defence (trenches in picture on the right) as it reportedly prepares for an offensive next month
The video begins with a single tank driving down a nearly destroyed roads as an artillery shell lands ahead of it
Shortly after the second explosion another blast is seen, possibly from the tank itself
The satellite imagery of Moscow’s new fortifications may also show that Putin is concerned about a new Ukrainian counteroffensive – following the news of modern tanks being sent from the West.
‘They’re trying to basically consolidate their gains and keep the parts that they’ve held on to thus far,’ Africk, who works at the American Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Beast.
‘I think it’s definitely both a message to soldiers in Ukraine, and to everyone who might be watching, that they’re going to at least try and stay.’
The news follows a video capturing the moment a Russian tank drives straight into a minefield while taking artillery fire in Ukraine.
The vehicle is seen driving down an empty road, thought to be outside Donetsk, that is surrounded by hundreds of craters from shelling.
The footage shows an artillery shell exploding about 20m ahead of the tank as it continues forward.
The tank disappears behind the cloud of smoke before it drives over a mine and sets of another explosion.
Four soldiers escape the burning wreckage of the tank and run off into the field next to the road as the video ends
Just a second later another explosion takes place and a fireball erupts from the tank, forcing the soldiers inside to flee.
The drone footage ends by showing four soldiers running away from the wreckage off into the cratered fields to the side.
The video comes as Ukrainian troops were locked in a ‘fierce’ confrontation with Russian fighters on Friday for control of the town of Vugledar southwest of Donetsk as the two sides battle along the southern front.
Both sides claimed success in the small administrative centre of apartment blocks surrounded by flat fields, a short distance from the strategic prize of the village of Pavlivka.
‘The encirclement and subsequent liberation of this city solves many problems,’ said Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-appointed leader of the Donetsk region.
‘Soon, Vugledar may become a new, very important success for us,’ he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
But Kyiv said the town, which had a pre-invasion population of around 15,000 people, remained contested.
‘There is fierce combat there,’ Ukrainian military spokesman Sergiy Cherevaty told local media.
‘For many months, the military of the Russian Federation… has been trying to achieve significant success there,’ he said.
A woman walks near a residential building destroyed by a Russian missile attack in the town of Glevakha, Kyiv region
A burned tank sits next to a road in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian servicemen take cover as they fire a mortar load on the Donbass frontline
Ukrainian soldiers are seen on their ways to the frontlines with their armored military vehicles as the strikes continue on the Donbass frontline
Moscow’s push for Vugledar is part of its effort to seize control of the entire Donetsk region, which it has already declared a part of Russia.
Ukraine said this week that Russian troops had stepped up their attacks in the east, particularly on Vugledar and Bakhmut.
According to a White House National Security Council assessment, Russia is currently using the cold winter months to regroup, retrain, re-equip, and prepare for next steps in the war.
The United States is helping Ukraine prepare to go on the counteroffensive against Russia, according to White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.