(RFI) Ukraine said it is ready to begin its offensive during the European spring against Russian forces, whose attacks killed at least 26 people on Friday (28) in several cities across the country.
“Preparations are coming to an end,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said of the major attack his country wants to launch to recapture Russian-occupied territories in the east and south.
“The equipment has been promised, prepared and partially delivered. By and large, we are ready,” the minister said at a press conference. “When God wills, [when there is] the mood and the decision of the commanders, we will do [the counteroffensive].”
Reznikov added, however, that the powerful Abrams tanks promised by the United States “will not arrive in time to participate in this counteroffensive,” as their delivery to Ukraine is not due until the end of 2023.
A few hours before the announcement, several Russian cruise missile attacks, the first on a large scale since early March, hit apartment buildings, causing the deaths of at least 23 people in Uman (center), another two in Dnipro (center-east), and a man found under the rubble of his home in Kherson province (south).
“Every attack, every evil act against our country and our people brings the terrorist state closer to failure and punishment,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted on Telegram, demanding an international “response” to “Russian terror.”
“I want to see my children, dead or alive”
Russia, for its part, said it had bombed “temporary deployment points of reserve units of the Ukrainian armed forces” with “high-precision weapons.” “All designated targets were hit,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
In Ouman, a town of 80,000 people, AFP journalists saw an apartment building destroyed by a missile, rescue teams removing bodies, and wounded people waiting for news of their loved ones.
“I want to see my children, dead or alive,” said Dmytro, 33, a resident of the affected building. “They are under the rubble.”
At least 23 people, including four children, died in this building, according to the latest report from the Interior Ministry.
Another Russian attack, in Dnipro, a town in east-central Ukraine, caused the deaths of “a young girl” and “a 3-year-old child,” Mayor Borys Filatov reported on Telegram. In all, the Ukrainian army announced, also on Telegram, that it had shot down “21 cruise missiles of type X-101/X-555 out of a total of 23, as well as two drones.”
Decisive strike
Moscow-installed authorities, meanwhile, announced on Friday that nine people were killed and 16 injured in attacks by Ukrainian forces on Donetsk, the main Russian-controlled city in eastern Ukraine.
During the European winter, Russia attempted to plunge Ukraine into darkness and disorder by striking at the country’s energy infrastructure, a strategy that failed, however.
The prospect of a future offensive by the Ukrainian army, backed by powerful Western equipment, would bring the war into a new phase after more than a year of high intensity conflict.
For months, Ukraine has said it wants to launch a decisive attack to reverse the course of the Russian invasion and liberate the nearly 20 percent of its occupied territory, including the Crimean peninsula.
Bakhmout
To help Kiev, NATO member states and their partners have provided the Ukrainians with 230 battle tanks and more than 1,500 other armored vehicles, the organization’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced Thursday (27).
On Friday, Ukraine received Caesar weapons from Denmark, without specifying the number. Copenhagen, however, had promised last February to deliver 19 of these French-made weapons. Russia, for its part, has mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists.
Despite front-line support from the Wagner Group paramilitaries, Russian forces are finding great difficulty in Bakhmout, an eastern city they have been trying to capture for many months, the longest and bloodiest battle of this war.
For Moscow, it is about claiming victory after so many humiliating setbacks in the past year. The clashes have become more violent because Russian special forces are fighting in the city, according to Ukrainian army reports.
Help from China
Near Bakhmout, Alex, 34, is about to go into a trench on the battlefront to defend the city. “We are short of soldiers, we have many wounded, and also dead (…). Sometimes in the trenches we have to hide behind a dead body. It doesn’t matter if it is a Ukrainian or another, it is the only way to survive,” he said.
Kiev explains its war strategy of attrition in the area to limit as much as possible the Russian army’s chances of continuing its conquest of Donbass, a large industrial basin in the eastern part of Ukraine.
On the diplomatic front, President Zelensky announced on Friday that he had requested China’s help in the case of the return of Ukrainian children “deported” by Russia, whose number is officially estimated by Kiev to be at least 20,000.
(With information from AFP)