Ukraine war briefing: Fresh threat of attack from Belarus front, warns Zelenskyy

<p>Kyiv learns of five scenarios Russia has drawn up and will increase forces in the north, says Zelenskyy; Ukraine’s attacks heap pressure on Russian oil refining. What we know on day 1,548</p><p>Ukraine will <strong>send reinforcements to its northern regions and step up diplomatic pressure on Belarus</strong> to counter what Kyiv believes are Russian plans to launch a new offensive north of the capital, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Kyiv knew of five scenarios Russia had drawn up, Ukraine’s president added. “We analysed in detail the available data from our intelligence agencies on Russia’s planning of <strong>offensive operations in the Chernihiv-Kyiv direction</strong>,” Zelenskiy said. “Our forces in this sector will be increased.”</p><p>Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top army commander, said Kyiv had data that the <strong>Russian general staff was actively calculating and planning offensive operations</strong> from the north. The dictator Alexander Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to march on Ukraine from Belarus in 2022. Zelenskyy said it was “already tiresome that there is constantly such a threat to Ukraine that the Russians may at some point drag Belarus into an expansion of the war. They should understand there will be <strong>consequences for them and they will be significant</strong>.”</p><p>In the initial full-scale invasion in 2022, <strong>Ukraine successfully repelled a huge Russian armoured column</strong> that attempted to attack Kyiv from the north. Ukraine’s border guards spokesperson, Andriy Demchenko, told Ukrinform news agency on Wednesday: “As of now, we haven’t detected any movement of equipment or personnel directly at our border, but of course, we can see the <strong>pressure Russia is putting on Belarus</strong>.”</p><p>Virtually all major <strong>oil refineries in central Russia have been forced to halt<