Russia wants to conduct aspring-summer offensive and capture Donbas by September — intelligence
Russia intends to deploy an additional 20,000 troops to Ukraine as it prepares a new spring-summer offensive in the southeast and aims to capture the entire Donbas Oblast by September 2026, Deputy Chief of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Vadym Skibitskyi told the Financial Times in an interview.
Skibitskyi said the recent increase in Russian missile and drone strikes, along with attacks on critical infrastructure, is part of a broader effort to shape the battlefield ahead of the renewed offensive.
With roughly 680,000 Russian soldiers already deployed in Ukraine, Moscow is not taking peace talks seriously and instead plans to continue the war, he added.
Skibitskyi also noted that Russia produces about 60 Iskander missiles per month, while Ukraine faces a shortage of air-defense missiles, such as Patriots, needed to protect the entire country from ballistic threats.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously highlighted the impact of global events, including the conflict in Iran, on the availability of such munitions.