Moscow/Kiev, May 1 (EFE).- Ukraine no longer hides that “soon” it will launch the long-awaited counteroffensive for which it has “everything ready”, while doubts persist in Russia about the ability of its Army to resist an enemy advance to along the entire front.
“The main battles will come soon. We have to free our land and our people from Russian captivity. We have to fully restore our state borders both on land and sea,” Ukrainian Army Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny announced.
The Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleskii Reznikov, also confirmed today that “everything is ready” for the start of offensive actions without mentioning specific dates.
According to Reznikov, the Ukrainian forces are already in the “home stretch” of preparations.
Doubts in Russia over Ukraine’s counteroffensive
Meanwhile, in Russia, the Ukrainian counteroffensive is the main topic of discussion in recent weeks and one of the most popular searches on the Internet.
“The Ukrainian army is prepared for the counteroffensive. The number of its troops does not decrease, but grows, grows with each day”, confirmed the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in an interview.
According to Prigozhin, the enemy did not start the counterattack because of bad weather and “perhaps, some internal problems that they had to solve.”
The head of Wagner, Russia’s main assault force in Ukraine, recalled that after World War II Russia was involved only in the conflicts in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Syria and eastern Ukraine.
“After (the annexation of) Crimea, we think we are the strongest,” he opined to question the current preparation of the troops for the Ukrainian counterattack.
Igor Strelkov, who led the pro-Russian uprising in Donbas in 2014, in turn opined that the next step is up to the Ukrainians, because the Russian generals “during the winter and spring could do practically nothing.”
However, other sources confirm the construction of Russian fortifications along the entire front line to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
New Russian missile attack
The preparation of the sides for the imminent counteroffensive occurs amid new attacks with Russian missiles, one of which left 34 wounded last night in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where it caused significant damage to the infrastructure.
This is the second wave of Russian bombing in three days, which on this occasion also affected Kherson (southern Ukraine).
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the attack was aimed at military objectives and its targets were hit.
The Russian military department said the attack damaged the capacity of Ukrainian military industry companies engaged in producing weapons, military equipment and ammunition.
The leader of the “Together with Russia” movement, Vladimir Rogov, affirmed for his part that the bombing was intended to reduce the military capabilities of the Ukrainians in the face of the counter-offensive.
Bakhmut does not give up
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians continue to hold out in Bakhmut, where Russian forces claim small gains every day.
“On the Bakhmut front, 25,600 troops, 65 tanks, 450 armored fighting vehicles, 154 guns, 56 multiple launch rocket systems are fighting against us. This is more than the army of the Czech Republic or Hungary,” said the spokesman for the eastern group, Serhiy Cherevaty, in a comment to “RBK-Ukraina”.
Previously, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces, had reported that in Bakhmut the defense forces have forced the Russian troops to abandon some positions with their counterattacks.
“The situation is quite complicated. At the same time, in some parts of the city the enemy was counterattacked by our units and abandoned some positions, ”he stated.
In this regard, Wagner’s chief, Yevgueni Prigozhin, assured yesterday that his detachments had advanced about 230 meters in one day, so that “there are 2.9 square kilometers of territory” to be conquered before proclaiming total victory in Bakhmut.