February 7, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has accused the US and its allies of trying to drag out the conflict in Ukraine for as long as possible by supplying heavy weapons to Kyiv, and that such steps are drawing NATO countries into the conflict. 

"Indeed, this kind of steps involve NATO countries in the conflict, and can lead to an unpredictable level of its escalation," he added. "The groups of Russian forces continue grinding all the armament and hardware, delivered to Kyiv, both at the routes of their delivery, and at the combat positions."

CNN is unable to independently verify those claims. 

Shoigu's claim comes as Ukraine expects Russia to mobilize up to half a million additional soldiers in the coming months, according to a senior intelligence official.

Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy head of Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, asserted in an interview that "Russia is going to mobilize 300,000 to 500,000 people in order to carry out offensive operations in the south and east of Ukraine in spring and summer of 2023."

Russian forces in eastern Ukraine appear to be stockpiling ammunition and building up troop reserves ahead of an offensive that could begin in weeks, Ukraine’s top official in the Luhansk region has said.

The Russians “are bringing in ammunition, but they do not waste as much of it as they used to,” Serhiy Hayday, head of Luhansk region military administration, said Monday on VotTak television.

“Meaning they are saving ammunition load because they are getting ready for the full-scale offensive," he added.

Hayday said that the Russian military continues to mass mobilized troops in Ukraine. He said he believes there are tens of thousands of mobilized troops in the occupied Luhansk region, not including regular army personnel like paratroopers.

Ukrainian leaders have for some time been warning of a renewed Russian offensive, particularly in eastern and southern Ukraine. Hand-in-hand have come pleas for more advanced and powerful western weaponry. Having received pledges for dozens of western main battle tanks, Ukrainian officials have stepped-up messaging about their desire for western fighter jets.

Despite the alleged build-up of resources in eastern Ukraine, it is unclear how much Russia will be able to change the calculus of the battlefield. The UK Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it was “unlikely that Russia can build up the forces needed to substantially affect the outcome of the war within the coming weeks.”

Russia has for months been trying to capture the eastern city of Bakhmut, without success. Its only notable victory has been the capture of a small town, Soledar, just north of Bakhmut. Nonetheless, its troops have successfully continued to advance slowly to the north and south of the city, in an effort to make a continued Ukrainian presence there untenable.

The commander of Ukraine’s land forces on Monday said that the landscape around Bakhmut – particularly hills to the west of the city – provides natural defenses that make it an “un-winnable fortress.”

More on Bakhmut: CNN reported in January that the US and Western officials were urging Ukraine to shift its focus from the brutal, months-long fight in the eastern city of Bakhmut and prioritize instead a potential offensive in the south, using a different style of fighting that takes advantage of the billions of dollars in new military hardware recently committed by Western allies.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand, Alex Marquardt and Katie Bo Lillis contributed to this post.

Ukraine’s defense minister, whose continued tenure has been questioned by the leader of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party in parliament, on Tuesday posted the message “holding the line” on Twitter.

“Thank you all for your support, as well as constructive criticism,” Oleksii Reznikov said. “We draw conclusions. We continue the reforms. Even during the war. We are strengthening the defense and working for victory. Glory to Ukraine!”

The leader of Zelensky’s parliamentary faction, David Arakhamia, announced on Sunday that Reznikov would be replaced as Defense Minister, but appeared to temper that on Monday, saying that no change is expected this week.

Some context: Ukraine is making an anti-corruption push as it tries to gain accession to the European Union.

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau has been investigating “high-profile media reports” on allegations that the defense ministry was buying military provisions, including food for the troops, at inflated prices.

Ukraine’s top national security official, Oleksiy Danilov, also hinted at his country’s ability to strike Russia on its own territory, beyond occupied Ukraine, in his interview with CNN.

Western nations have restricted Ukraine from striking Russian territory with Western-donated weapons. Though there have consistently been unexplained explosions at strategic sites in Russia over the course of the war, Ukraine has never publicly admitted being responsible for the strikes.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, last month predicted attacks “deeper and deeper” inside Russia, away from the frontlines, without acknowledging any Ukrainian role.

Budanov told ABC News in January that he was “very glad to see” attacks inside Russia, but that he was unable to “give you [an] answer” until after the war about whether Ukraine has played a role in such strikes.

“Do you think there will be more?” the reporter asked Budanov. “I think so,” he replied.

"Inside Russia? Deep inside Russia?” the reporter asked. “Deeper and deeper,” he said.

Ukraine’s top national security official told CNN that he is confident Ukraine will eventually receive American-made F-16 fighter jets.

The F-16, first developed in the 1970s, is a highly maneuverable fighter jet, capable of carrying six air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles under its wings.

F-16s would give Ukraine the capability, should it overcome air defenses, to strike Russia with an American-made weapon far behind the frontlines, even outside of territory considered internationally to be Ukrainian.

There have been pledges from the West for main battle tanks to Ukraine in recent days, which has led to renewed calls from Kyiv for fighter jets. Publicly, however, Western leaders have eschewed discussion of fighter jets going to Ukraine.

In an interview with CNN last month, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov: “I sent a wish list card to Santa Claus last year, and fighter jets also [were] including in this wish list.”

In the distance there are gunshots, a heavy blanket of snow muffling the sound, confusing the senses — how far away and which direction, impossible to know.

Inside their German-made Leopard 2 tanks, Danish soldiers wait to pounce on their prey, an “enemy” force hiding in a warren of trenches deep in the freezing Estonian forest.

Before they leap into action in this NATO military exercise, just 100 miles from the Russian border, French and Estonian infantry open up a ferocious fusillade of fake gunfire, duking it out for control of the trenches in almost hand-to-hand fighting.

Troops fall to the ground amid thunderous simulated artillery explosions, as exercise officials bellow who is dead, who is injured.

The annual NATO winter military exercise is intended to gel the multinational soldiers — this year comprising Estonian, French, British, Danish and US troops — into a singular fighting force able to take enemy territory even in the bone-chilling cold.

Amid the trees, the message for Russian President Vladimir Putin is clear: NATO’s high-tech forces are ready for action. There are lessons here for the Ukrainians, too, whose training on Leopard 2 tanks began Monday in Germany.

Read the full story:

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Traditional Ukrainian tapestries, family photos and pastoral scenes on cheap posters cover the walls of her cottage warmed by a wood-burning stove. The only record of her tragic past are her birth certificate and her memories.

In her 102 years, Liubov Yarosh has survived three famines, including the 1932-33 “Holodomor” when — under Joseph Stalin’s orders — Ukraine’s farmers were stripped of every grain they produced, to feed Moscow’s industrialization and suppress Ukrainian nationalist resistance.

At 13 she saw her older brother and sister perish in what was Ukraine’s worst mass starvation. “I was completely swollen. My legs were swollen, my arms were swollen. I was so sick. I thought I was going to die,” she says of her own suffering.

Back then the Kremlin sought to rid Ukraine of independent farmers, of its language, its history, its artists and its independence.

Many believe what Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to do now has startling similarities.

Read the full story here.

Ukraine expects Russia to mobilize up to half a million additional soldiers in the coming months, according to a senior intelligence official.

Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy head of Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, asserted in an interview that "Russia is going to mobilize 300,000 to 500,000 people in order to carry out offensive operations in the south and east of Ukraine in spring and summer of 2023."

Russian officials have consistently denied that another mobilization is planned. But at a conference in December of Russia's military chiefs, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed strengthneing the armed forces by up to 1.5 million combat personnel from the current 1.15 million over a period of three years.

This was required "to guarantee the solving of problems related to Russia's military security", Shoigu said.

Skibytskyi also said that at the beginning of 2022, Defense Intelligence was aware that a "full-scale invasion was to begin in early February or a bit later ... In January we saw troops from Russia's Eastern Military District begin arriving in Belarus," as well as preparations in Crimea, he said.

United Nations head António Guterres on Monday struck a somber tone as he warned leaders convened in New York at the organization’s General Assembly that the world is knowingly marching into a “wider war."