Ukraine says it expects a major offensive from Moscow on the first anniversary of the invasion.
Russian forces recently scored their first success in months by taking Soledar, a town in eastern Ukraine.
And many observers believe that Moscow is preparing a new major offensive around February 24.
“We too must be ready as soon as possible, and that is why we need weapons, to contain the enemy”, insisted the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksiï Reznikov, invited Wednesday evening on BFM TV.
“We do not underestimate our enemy.
We see that it is preparing very seriously for the offensive”, continued the minister, advancing the figure of “500,000 Russian soldiers” mobilized by the Kremlin.
“We think that since they live in symbolism, they will try to try something around February 24,” he continued.
According to him, "they can attempt a two-pronged offensive", in Dombass and the south.
kyiv asks for new weapons "to contain the enemy"
After a series of humiliating setbacks in the fall, Russia mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists.
Associated with the paramilitary group Wagner, the Russian army has also intensified the fighting, in particular to take Bakhmout, a city in the East that it has been pounding since the summer.
Read alsoWith the Ukrainian artillerymen of Bakhmout: "We will prevent the Russians from seizing the city"
Faced with this threat, Ukraine is engaged in a race against time to obtain more powerful armaments.
In particular, it wants high-precision missiles with a range of more than 100 kilometers to destroy Russian supply lines in order to overcome its shortfall in manpower and armament.
“Justice will be served”
So far, the West has refused to deliver these systems and combat aircraft, for fear of an escalation with Russia.
US President Joe Biden, however, said on Tuesday that he would discuss it with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Already, after long procrastination, Europeans and Americans have given the green light to deliveries of modern heavy tanks, even if their number is still below what Ukraine demands.
While kyiv is due to host a summit with the European Union on Friday, the Ukrainian authorities launched a vast anti-corruption operation on Wednesday targeting administrations, civil servants and personalities.
“Justice will be done,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily message, reporting “dozens of searches and other actions in different regions and against different people in criminal proceedings”.
