This year, Moscow plans to create 15 new divisions, which will include up to 150,000 military personnel.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated this at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“This year, Moscow plans to create 15 new divisions, adding up to 150,000 soldiers. That’s more than the national armies of most European countries. Russia keeps opening new army recruitment centers every week,” he said.
Zelensky noted that Putin can afford it – “oil prices are still high enough for him to ignore the world.”
“We have clear intel that this summer, Russia plans to send troops to Belarus under the pretext of ‘training exercises’. But that’s exactly how they staged forces before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago. Is this Russian force in Belarus meant to attack Ukraine? Maybe. Or maybe not. Or maybe – it’s meant for you,” Zelensky stated.
He recalled that Belarus borders three NATO countries and it has effectively become a foothold for Russian military operations.
“According to both Putin and Lukashenko, Belarus now hosts banned weapons – medium-range missiles and even nuclear arms. Putin clearly sees Belarus as just another Russian province now. And we need to be realistic – if someone is setting up a military launchpad, we need to ask: what should we do about it? And more importantly: what can we do before the next attack, the next invasion?” Zelensky noted.
He pointed out that there have already been provocations on the Polish and Lithuanian borders with Belarus migrant crises, staged by Russian intelligence to stir up chaos in Europe.
“But what if, next time, it’s not migrants? What if it’s Russian troops? Or North Korean troops? Make no mistake – North Koreans are not weak. They are learning how to fight now, how to fight the modern war. And what about your armies? Are they ready? And if Russia launches a false flag operation or just straight up with no insignia from Belarus – like how Crimea got taken in 2014 – how fast will the allies respond? And will they respond at all?” the Ukrainian president said.
Zelensky added that yesterday in Munich, U.S. Vice President JD Vance made it clear that decades of the old relationship between Europe and America are ending, and “from now on, things will be different, and Europe needs to adjust to that.”
As Ukrinform reported, the Munich Security Conference takes place from February 14 to 16.
Source: Zelensky says Moscow plans to create 15 divisions this year
