President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed Saturday that much-anticipated counter-operations were underway in the country’s war against Russia, but offered few specifics.
“Counter-attack and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine, but I won’t say in detail what stage they are at,” Zelensky told a news conference with the Canadian prime minister. Justin Trudeauwho is on a surprise visit to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s generals are “all in a positive mood,” Zelensky said. “Pass it on to Putin,” he added with a smile.
The surprise announcement came just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the battle had begun and that Ukrainian troops were suffering “significant” losses. He told reporters in Sochi on Friday: “Ukrainian troops have not achieved the stated tasks in a single area of combat. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that Putin’s comments marked “a departure from the Kremlin’s previous efforts to downplay Ukraine’s counterattacks”.
Ukrainian officials have long maintained strategic silence about any counter-plans that have been in the works for months. Last week, the country’s Ministry of Defense announced a short video of fully-armed soldiers raising their fingers to their lips and instructing the viewer to “shhh” as gunfire resounds in the background. Zelensky’s comments on Saturday were his first explicit acknowledgment of the counterattack.
Two Western military analysts told NBC News that the German-made Leopard 2 battle tank, which arrived in Kiev only after months of talks with NATO, was used as part of the counterattack.
One day earlier, ISW report that a “multiple indications” suggested that Ukrainian counter-attacks were underway, and noted that this early phase “could also see the highest Ukrainian losses.”
Based on New York Times“U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the most likely scenarios are smaller Ukrainian victories in the opening stages of the fighting, such as the recapture of some parts of the Donbas or push Russia away from the agricultural and mining regions of southeastern Ukraine.”
Although it is difficult to verify the facts on the ground independently, the Ukrainian military reported that they had gained more than 1 km near Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that Russia claims to have captured in late May, as well as small tactical interests east of Donetsk. land. On Saturday morning, the British Ministry of Defense acknowledged Ukraine’s “important” activities over the past two days and said Ukrainian troops “could have made good progress and penetrated Russia’s first line of defense”. “. Elsewhere, however, the ministry noted that “progress has been slower”.
