Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday evening held an emergency meeting of the Russian Security Council before his visit to China and Australia. This may mean that Russia could resume the war in Ukraine this weekend, Gazeta Wyborcza has reported.
"This information [about a meeting of the Russian Security Code Council] does not promise well. Russia likes to start military operations if Putin is absent in the country. That was the case in 2008, when the Russian-Georgian war began, and that happened a few times this year when new stages of Russian aggression in Ukraine began," the newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, the Kremlin still believes that "the West can be deceived by a simple trick: when the cat's away, the mice will play."
"And when they finish their 'play,' Putin will take up the case - the world's agreement to the new conquests of Russia, which rises from its knees," the newspaper said.
According to the newspaper, Moscow has for several weeks been preparing for the resumption of hostilities in Donbas and in other regions of Ukraine by pulling troops to the border, strengthening its units in eastern Ukraine and creating four strike groups of Russian mercenaries.
"Putin likes to start his [armed] campaigns on weekends. Everything points to the fact that it will be so this time. The next stage of a great war is probably beginning in Donbas," Gazeta Wyborcza reported.