Vladimir Putin will make a major speech ahead of the one year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, amid fears a fresh assault will be announced.
The Russian warmonger will give an address to the country's federal assembly on February 21 "on the current situation", according to a Kremlin spokesman.
This comes following Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, saying Russia is planning a major offensive to coincide with the anniversary on 24 February.
He said to French media that the army has a stock of recruits they are saving up to roll across the border at the turn of this date.
“We do not underestimate our enemy,” Reznikov said. “Officially, they announced 300,000, but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our assessments it is much more.
“We think that, given that [Russia] lives in symbolism, they will try to try something around February 24.”
However, Andriy Chernyak, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, said Putin's military do not have enough weapons for a fresh attack as large as they are hinting at.
On the morning of the 24th, Putin made an official announcement of a "special military operation" seeking the "demilitarisation" and "denazification" of Ukraine.
To this day he has still not called the rolling of his tanks and the thousands of following deaths a war.
The speech will mark the one-year anniversary of Putin recognising the “independence” of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in eastern Ukraine. This is the announcement which was used as a pretext to launch the full-scale invasion three days later.
On Friday morning, Putin also initiated a three and a half hour missile assault across Ukraine, forcing millions of Ukrainians into bomb shelters.
Russia’s defence ministry confirmed that its forces had carried out a “massive strike” on critically important energy facilities of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.
And Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, has said Russia hit power facilities in six regions with missiles and drones, causing blackouts across most of the country.
Russia's brutal Wagner mercenary group said on Sunday that it had captured the village of Krasna Hora on the northern edge of Bakhmut.
But the claim that Russian forces have taken the village has not been independently verified.
