Russia plans to attack Ukraine early next year, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's intelligence agency claimed, amid reports in recent days that the Russian military is stepping up its forces in the border area and the Black Sea.

Brigadier General Kirilio Bodnov said in an interview with the Military Times website that so far Russia has deployed more than 94,000 troops along the border, in addition to 330 aircraft, 75 ships and six submarines and short-range Iskander missile systems.

Bodnov estimated that the attack could be launched in late January or early February and even noted that the Americans hold a similar assessment. According to him, it will include airstrikes, artillery and armored attacks with paratrooper activity in the east and raids from the sea in the Odessa and Mariupol region, in addition to limited intrusions from Belarus.

The senior Ukrainian officer further estimated that Russia would also launch psychological warfare operations in order to undermine stability in Ukraine and the country's ability to respond to the attack, including demonstrations ostensibly designed to protest against corona vaccines. "They want to provoke unrest, through demonstrations and meetings, that will show that the people are against the government," he said.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that the U.S. had warned its allies that there was a limited time window to prevent Russian military action against Ukraine and that the director of the intelligence community, Avril Haynes, had presented NATO ambassadors in Brussels with intelligence on the border situation.

The report shows that the US and British intelligence systems are convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin is interested in taking control of much of Ukraine or undermining the country's stability in order to bring about the rise of a pro-Russian government in Kiev.

According to intelligence sources, Putin is frustrated by the lack of progress in the peace process that Germany and France launched after the annexation of the Crimea and the outbreak of the civil war in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and that he wants to ensure land crossing between eastern Ukraine and the Crimea.