Top Ukrainian security official declares Russia now lacks capability to take Kyiv

The Russian military does not have the resources to try to capture Kyiv again, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said in an interview with Natalia Moseychuk.

Ukrainian intelligence monitors the situation in all directions every day.

Training of Russians is planned in Belarus in 2024, Danilov added.

"We will have to carefully monitor the number of troops there, a lot depends on the actions of our partners. We definitely need more weapons. But there is no question of them ruling in Kyiv, they do not have such capabilities now," the top security official said.

During the two years of the all-out war, Ukraine "knocked out the teeth of Russia that it had in February 2022."

"The Russian army is being thinned out every day, their number does not grow. Otherwise, they would not have turned to North Korea and Iran for help," the NSDC secretary stressed.

On December 14, 2023, Ukraine's spymaster Kyrylo Budanov stated that the Russians do not plan to wage war against Ukraine in 2025. Perhaps by the end of 2024, Russia will adjust its war plans, but so far this has not been observed.

On December 25, Budanov declared that Russia will never be able to destroy Ukraine. 2024, according to his forecasts, will first of all be "a year of continued struggle."

Illya Yevlash, the head of the press service of the Khortytsia operational and strategic  troop grouping, believes that the offensive of the Russian occupation forces will soon be exhausted.