Ukraine: Ukraine prepares for renewed Russian offensive
Ukrainian forces are bracing for an imminent large-scale attack by Russian troops as the Kremlin seeks to regain the initiative in the war and seize the rest of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have multiplied warnings in recent days about a coming Russian offensive, albeit with differing timelines. Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, said on Sunday that his country expected Russia’s invading forces to launch a new offensive in the Donbas and southern areas where it currently occupies close to 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory later this month.
The attack is expected to come around a year after Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion on February 24, and before modern western tanks and other weaponry recently pledged arrives. “Of course, we expect possible offensives from the Russians . . . they like symbolism,” Reznikov said during a press conference in Kyiv.
He added that while the modern tanks and other up-to-date equipment would not arrive by then, the country had “amassed resources and reserves which we can deploy and with which we can push back”.