Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced Saturday that his armed forces are ready launch the long-awaited counteroffensive. “We strongly believe that we will succeed,” President Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal.
While confident of his country’s success on the battlefield, President Zelensky — warned of heavy Ukrainian casualties if further military was not delivered — particularly the U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems. The Ukrainian leader “said he was now ready to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive but tempered a forecast of success with a warning: It could take some time and come at a heavy cost,” the WSJ reported.
The German broadcaster DW News reported:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his army is ready to stage a much-awaited counteroffensive against Russia, but warned of mass casualties unless Western allies can provide more military aid.”A large number of soldiers will die” if Kyiv is not provided with the tools needed to defend against Russian missile strikes, Zelenskyy told the Wall Street Journal in comments published on Saturday.”Everyone knows perfectly well that any counteroffensive without air superiority is very dangerous,” he said.”Imagine the feeling of a soldier who knows that he doesn’t have a roof and he doesn’t understand why neighboring countries have one.”In particular, Zelenskyy called for more deliveries of the US-made Patriot air defense system that he said was the only weapon that could defend Ukraine’s skies.”The reality is 50 Patriots will, for the most part, prevent people from dying,” he said.
The Western media anticipated a Ukrainian offensive in spring, but the military push was delayed as both armies fought a grueling eight-month battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Although actual casualties figure are difficult to come by, both sides are said to have lost tens of thousands of soldiers.
Bolstered with newly-supplied tanks, heavy armor and other military equipment, Ukraine is promising to field freshly trained troops as the Russian aggression enters its fifteenth month. According to the Irish Times, “Ukraine has readied 12 brigades, an estimated 60,000 troops, to spearhead” the counter attack. They face around 300,000 invading Russian troops along a 900-mile frontline, the newspaper estimated.
Anticipating a Ukrainian counteroffensive, the Russian forces are fortifying their positions. “Satellite images of thousands of new defensive positions …. show Russia has been digging in at key strategic points in readiness for an offensive by a Ukrainian military,” the Reuters reported late April.
The fortification work continues are summer approaches, frost recedes and the ground dries up. “Russian forces, meanwhile, have fortified their defences along a frontline that runs for 900 miles (1,450km) from the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south,” the BBC reported Saturday.
Meanwhile, Russian missiles and Iran-made drones continued to hit Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. “Russian drone and cruise missile strikes on Sunday targeted multiple areas of the country, including the capital, Kyiv,” The Associated Press reported Sunday. “The Ukrainian air force said that air defenses downed three of five Shahed self-exploding drones and four of the six cruise missiles fired.”
Media reports suggest an increase in Ukrainian ground offensives. Russia on Monday claimed that it foiled an ‘major’ Ukrainian attack in the occupied Donbas region.
“Russia’s defence ministry says it has thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive in Donetsk, claiming to have killed 250 troops and destroyed armoured vehicles, the BBC reported Monday. “Video of what Russia says is the battle appears to show military vehicles coming under heavy fire in fields.”
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