Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Saturday that much-anticipated counteroffensive operations are underway within the nation’s warfare in opposition to Russia, however supplied little in the way in which of particular element.
“Counteroffensive and defensive actions are happening in Ukraine, however I can’t say intimately what stage they’re at,” Zelensky mentioned throughout a press convention with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who’s on a shock go to to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s generals “are all in a optimistic temper,” Zelensky mentioned. “Go that on to Putin,” he added with a smile.
The shock announcement got here simply someday after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the battle had commenced and that Ukrainian troops have been struggling “vital” losses consequently. “The Ukrainian troops haven’t achieved their acknowledged duties in a single space of combating,” he informed reporters in Sochi on Friday. The Institute for the Examine of Struggle (ISW) famous that Putin’s feedback marked “a departure from earlier Kremlin efforts to downplay Ukrainian counteroffensives.”
Ukrainian officers have lengthy maintained a strategic silence about any counteroffensive plans, which have been within the works for months. Final week, the nation’s protection ministry launched a brief video of troops clad in full army gear elevating a finger to their lips and instructing viewers to “shhh,” as gunfire sounded within the background. Zelensky’s feedback Saturday are his first specific acknowledgment of the counteroffensive.
Two Western army analysts informed NBC Information that German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks, which solely made it to Kyiv after months of back-and-forth with NATO, have already been used as a part of the counteroffensive.
A day earlier, the ISW reported {that a} “number of indicators” steered that the Ukrainian counteroffensive operations have been already underway, and famous that this early section “might also see the very best Ukrainian losses.”
In keeping with The New York Occasions, “American intelligence companies have assessed that the probably situations are smaller Ukrainian victories within the opening stage of the combating, like retaking some elements of the Donbas or pushing Russia out of agricultural and mining areas in southeastern Ukraine.”
Though it’s troublesome to independently confirm info on the bottom, Ukraine’s army already has reported positive factors of simply over one kilometer close to Bakhmut, a metropolis in japanese Ukraine that Russia claimed to have captured in late Might, in addition to small tactical positive factors within the japanese Donetsk area. On Saturday morning, the British Ministry of Protection acknowledged “vital” Ukrainian operations over the previous two days and mentioned the Ukrainian army had “doubtless made good progress and penetrated the primary line of Russian protection.” Elsewhere, nonetheless, the ministry famous that “progress has been slower.”
