Zelensky's Office: Russia Considered Invasion Scenario from Northern Ukraine

The office of Ukraine's president has stated that Russia considered several scenarios for invading Ukrainian territory from the north — through the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, which border Belarus. This was reported by the Kyiv Independent, citing a representative of Zelensky's office, Pavlo Palisa.

"Russia did indeed consider several options. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has developed possible response scenarios, including measures for defense, protection, and prevention of such actions," Palisa said. According to him, Ukraine's top priority is to prevent conditions that would allow Russia to launch any offensive operations.

Palisa specified that the information came from several intelligence sources, and all the data had been verified. He declined to clarify whether this referred to Ukrainian intelligence or foreign intelligence services. According to him, no dangerous troop movements have been detected in the north of the country so far.

Chernihiv and Kyiv Regions Under Threat

The Kyiv region borders Belarus to the north, while the Chernihiv region borders both Belarus and Russia directly. According to Ukrainian officials, these are the very regions that had previously been named as potential targets for new attacks.

Tensions between Ukraine and Belarus escalated sharply back in the spring of this year, when Russia and Belarus held joint nuclear exercises in May. At the time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Kremlin was considering new offensive operations toward the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions from Belarusian territory, and did not rule out threats to neighboring NATO countries either.

Later, at the end of May, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk had a "significant" target in its sights on Ukrainian territory. This statement came just a few days after Kyiv reported discovering 500 objects in Belarus that could potentially become targets for strikes.

Source: novinky.cz