Russia has gathered nearly 100,000 troops on Ukraine's eastern border and is preparing for a military operation in the country as early as January, General Kiryol Bodnov, a senior member of the Kiev intelligence service, told the US Military Times.
According to the senior, the attack will include an initial phase of aerial bombardment, artillery fire and a large landing of special forces.
The source explained that Russia has practiced in the Crimean peninsula a landing of a force of 3,500 paratroopers in a rapid air operation and the purpose of the exercise is an attack on the airports and Ukrainian military bases in the east of the country.
In the second phase, a sea landing will be made near the cities of Mariupol and Odessa on the Black Sea coast and Russian armored columns will enter the territory of Ukraine via the land border as well as the Belarusian border.
The general warned that the Russian offensive would be more devastating than anything Ukraine has experienced in recent decades, in reference to the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula and Russian aid to the separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.
In eastern Ukraine, there is a continuing uprising of pro-Russian separatists aided by mercenaries and volunteers from Russia.
The uprising began after the Maiden Revolution, which removed the pro-Russian parties from power in Ukraine and brought to power in Kiev a government that supports upgrading relations with the European Union.
The uprising led to an ongoing war in which thousands were killed and infrastructure in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk counties collapsed.
