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Ukraine finalizing preparations for counteroffensive against Russian forces: Minister
Kyiv is wrapping up preparations for a counteroffensive against Russian forces waging war in Ukraine and broadly speaking is ready for it to go ahead, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Friday.
“As soon as there is God’s will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it,” he told an online news briefing.
He gave no date for when the counteroffensive would start but said: “Globally speaking, we are to a high percentage ready.”
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Kyiv hopes its planned counteroffensive will change the dynamics of the war that has raged since Russia invaded Ukraine 14 months ago.
Russia holds swathes of Ukrainian territory in the east, south and southeast. Ukraine’s military said in its latest daily report on the war that Bakhmut, a small city in the east, remained the focus of fighting.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week that Kyiv’s foreign allies and partners had delivered almost all their promised combat vehicles to Ukraine.
Reznikov said Ukraine had received a lot of modern equipment, including arms that would serve as an “iron fist,” and that training on some Western equipment was continuing.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops have been training in the West to use different military assets on the battlefield in a combined way.
Read more:
Russian forces captured four blocks in Ukraine’s Bakhmut: Ministry