DONETSK, January 28. /TASS/. The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces under the guidance of US military advisers is planning an offensive in Donbass, the deputy chief of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s militia, Eduard Basurin, told a news briefing on Friday.

"According to our intelligence, the Ukrainian General Staff under the guidance of US advisers at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry is putting final touches to a plan for an offensive operation in Donbass. The date of aggression against the people’s republics will be set when the attack groups have been created and the operation’s plan approved by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council," he said.

The Ukrainian armed forces’ command, Basurin said, is going to redeploy to the area of the conflict another three brigades - 72nd mechanized infantry brigade, 10th mountain assault brigade and 80th airborne assault brigade, which are considered to the most combat ready and capable of conducting offensive operations."

The people’s militia, Basurin said, has evidence that the Ukrainian railways have been ordered by the Defense Ministry to provide trains for transporting the military hardware and personnel of the three brigades from the stations Belaya Tserkov, Kolomyia and Lvov on February 3-10.

Foreign instructors

Basurin said at the news briefing that the 80th airborne assault brigade had completed training at a training center in Starichi, the Lvov Region, operating in the disguise of the so-called International Peacekeeping and Security Center. Basurin said the training was conducted by British instructors from the training mission Orbital. The Ukrainian forces were trained to conduct operations in urban terrain. Basurin did not rule out that the trained paratroops might be used in assault groups in urban areas on the way to Gorlovka and Donetsk.

Also, Basurin said that the Sumy branch of Ukraine’s nationalist organization National Corps has begun field training for mercenaries under the guidance of nationalists with experience in combat operations during Kiev’s crackdown on Donbass in the summer of 2014. There has been evidence that "taking part in training militants are instructors from private US military companies Forward Observation Group and Academia.".