Russia is preparing for offensive war on continental scale, Ukraine claims

The Russian-Belarusian joint military exercise scheduled
for Sept. 14-20 is preparation for a large-scale continental war, Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko said in his annual address to Ukraine’s parliament
on Sept. 7. ”There are no signs that Moscow is ready to withdraw from Donbas or
Crimea, but the evidence of its preparation for an offensive war on a
continental scale is growing further,” he said, referring to the exercise
called West 2017. “Under the guise of strategic command-scale training, the
creation of new offensive Russian army formations to invade Ukrainian territory
can’t be excluded. 7,000 platforms with soldiers and hardware approached and
are approaching our borders. And there is guarantee that it will all return to
Russia at the conclusion of maneuvers.”

The fighters of the Donbas self-declared republics may
use their weapons in other territories if Ukrainian forces begin to use
American-provided weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a Sept. 7
press conference in China. Putin described how the separatists gained armaments
used by their enemies, particularly Ukrainian nationalist paramilitaries. “If
American arms are found in the conflict zone, it’s hard to say how the
self-declared republics will behave,” he said. “It’s possible they will direct
the armaments available to them to other zones that are sensitive to them and
create problems for them.”

The addition of U.S.-supplied arms to the conflict
will not serve to resolve the conflict, but merely create more casualties,
Putin said. “I want to stress that, so that it’s understood to everyone,
‘Nothing will change’,” he said.

Zenon Zawada: We don’t
see Russia initiating a continental war in the next two years. We think it’s
possible that Putin will expand the war in Donbas if he sees that pro-Western
forces will win the 2019 elections in Ukraine. We also think it’s possible that
Putin will consider an armed occupation of Ukraine to install a favorable
government, but we see very low chances for that considering all the expenses
that would be involved. Elections are cheaper.