“Russia is an archaic state, and it ties its actions to certain dates,” said presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak on national TV. “They have this obsessive thinking that something needs to be done to make people feel bad. They hate us, so they will try to increase the number of cruise missile attacks on a number of our cities on Aug 23-24. Kyiv will be on the list of these cities of course.” According to Mr Podolyak, russians want to take revenge for their failures in Ukraine.
The Belaruski Gayun monitoring group reported on August 15 that russia had amassed significant forces for a massive missile attack on Ukraine from Belarusian territory. Ukraine’s General Staff on August 16 reported similar risks.
This year, Ukraine will celebrate the 31st anniversary of the restoration of independence. At the end of July, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine will celebrate Independence Day despite the war.
