Russia has increased the number of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border after a conversation between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is stated by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov in a commentary to Politico.
According to him, more than 100,000 Russian troops are currently stationed on the territory from the temporarily occupied Crimea to the north-western border of the Russian Federation and Belarus. The Minister stresses that the aggressor country can "attack simultaneously on several fronts using artillery, tanks, and aircraft."
The minister stresses that the Ukrainian army has about 250,000 troops in its ranks, 200,000 reservists in territorial platoons, and 400,000 veterans of this Ukrainian-Russian hybrid war.
However, Reznikov notes that Ukraine is not Putin's ultimate goal. Ukraine is the "geographical center of Europe", so if there is a full-scale war "the war will come to Europe and not only to Ukraine." He believes that Putin is interested not so much in Ukraine itself as in showing Europe what Russia can do.
"It will be Ukrainian blood, it will be Russian blood, and many soldiers from Russia will return home in coffins. It could be a catastrophe," Reznikov stresses.
The Ukrainian government is particularly concerned about the safety of 15 nuclear power plants that provide about half of the country's energy. Any war within the country puts these facilities at risk, Reznikov says noting that the plants are like a "nuclear bomb."
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