While Russia preps for push, Kyiv continues to fight graft
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia is mustering its military might in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, in what Kyiv suspects is preparation for an offensive as the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches.
Also Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government continued its crackdown on alleged corruption. The government dismissed several high-ranking officials, lawmaker David Arakhamia said.
Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on an anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform in a country long gripped by graft. The latest allegations come as Western allies are channeling billions of dollars to help Kyiv fight Moscow and as the Ukrainian government is introducing reforms so it can potentially join the European Union.
Ukraine’s Security Service said on the Telegram messaging app that an operation Wednesday targeted “corrupt officials who undermine the country’s economy and the stable functioning of the defense-industrial complex.” It identified one of them as a former Defense Ministry official accused of embezzling state funds through the purchase of nearly 3,000 bulletproof vests that would inadequately protect Ukrainian soldiers.
On the battlefront, the Kremlin’s forces were expelling residents near the Russian-held parts of the front line so they can’t provide information about Russian troop deployments to Ukrainian artillery forces, Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said.
“There is an active transfer of (Russian troops) to the region and they are definitely preparing for something on the eastern front in February,” Haidai said.
The Institute for the Study of War said late Tuesday that “an imminent Russian offensive in the coming months is the most likely course of action.”
A new offensive might coincide with the one-year anniversary of the invasion on Feb. 24.
The General Staff of the
Armed Forces of Ukraine reported Wednesday that Russia was also concentrating its efforts in neighboring Donetsk province, especially in its bid to capture the key city of Bakhmut.
Donetsk and Luhansk provinces make up the Donbas, an industrial region bordering Russia that President Vladimir Putin identified as a goal for takeover from the war’s outset and where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Russian shelling of Bakhmut, from which most residents have fled, killed at least five civilians and wounded 10 Tuesday, Ukraine’s presidential office said Wednesday.
The regional governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, posted images of the aftermath of the shelling, and said Russia is “actively deploying new military personnel to the region.”
Donetsk was one of four provinces Russia illegally annexed in the fall, but controls only about half of it. To take the remaining half, Russian forces have no choice but to go through Bakhmut.