OREANDA-NEWS. Lieutenant General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU) Mikhail Zabrodsky named the regions that, in his opinion, would like to join Russia. He spoke about this on the air of the Ukrainian TV channel Espresso over the weekend.

As a conditional direction, he indicated the left-bank Ukraine - the Dnieper, Kherson, Kharkov and Odessa.

“I mean that part of the population that still dreams of some kind of Novorossiya, of becoming another province or becoming part of the Southern Federal District. And this is just the left-bank part, ”said the military.

At the same time, Zabrodsky did not specify why he came to this opinion.

Zabrodsky commanded the Highly Mobile Airborne Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In September 2017, the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) opened a criminal case against him under articles 356 and 357 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Use of prohibited means and methods of warfare”, “Genocide”).

Earlier, the military suggested that the United States would not fight for Ukraine in the Donbass. In 2021, on the air of the Freedom of Speech program, he noted that Washington’s support is important to Kiev, but this does not mean that in the event of an “open Russian invasion or an attempt to move deep into Ukraine, a US division will appear here and will “fight for us.” In this regard, he called on the country's authorities to strengthen defense.

In recent months, Western politicians and members of the media have been spreading numerous speculations about possible Russian aggression against Ukraine and threatening to impose tough sanctions against Moscow.

So, on January 25, US President Joe Biden said that he did not rule out the imposition of personal sanctions against the Russian president in the event of Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov drew attention to the fact that US calls for sanctions against the Russian leader are politically destructive, but not painful.

Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said on January 31 that the West does not provide any evidence to support its words that the Russian Federation is allegedly preparing to invade Ukraine.