Budanov says Russia’s ongoing offensive to die down by early spring.

Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) chief Kyrylo Budanov said on national television on Jan.

30 that Russia's ongoing offensive in Ukraine would run out of steam in early spring 2024. Budanov said that the current offensive has not made any significant advances since its start in November 2023. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian troops are trying to advance at the Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, and Avdiivka sectors in the east of Ukraine.

Budanov acknowledged that Russian troops have made "some advances" near Avdiivka, where Moscow is suffering heavy losses in an attempt to encircle the front-line city just kilometers from occupied Donetsk. "But this is not what they expected, not even close," Budanov said. According to Budanov, Russia set the goal of reaching the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, quickly reaching the Chornyi Zherebets River.

"Sometime in early spring, (Russia's) offensive will be completely exhausted. We make a move, the enemy makes a move. Now is the enemy's turn.

It will end, and then ours will start," he said. In the past weeks, Kyiv has been warning that Russia is intensifying attacks around Kupiansk, aiming to encircle and capture this key logistics hub in Kharkiv Oblast. The Ukrainian military confirmed on Jan.

21 a retreat from Krokhmalne, a village near the administrative borders of Kharkiv and Luhansk oblasts, saying its loss has no strategic impact. However, Ukraine's Armed Forces denied Russia's claims about the capture of Tabaivka, another village in Kharkiv Oblast not far from Kupiansk.

Ex-NATO chief: Not inviting Ukraine to join alliance gives Putin incentive to continue the war NATO should extend an invitation to Ukraine at the Washington Summit in July, as it could serve as "an instrument" to ending Russia's war, the alliance's former Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Jan.

30 in Kyiv. "I know that (NATO's invitation to Ukraine) would be a