Chris Lange, FISM News
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging patience for his military’s long-awaited spring counteroffensive against invading Russian forces.
Zelenskyy said that his military is still awaiting promised aid deliveries from the West and that mounting the offensive at this time would endanger lives.
The Ukrainian leader said that, while he has combat brigades that are “ready” for the counteroffensive, items promised by Western allies, including armored vehicles, were “arriving in batches.”
“With [what we already have] we can go forward, and, I think, be successful,” Zelenskyy said from his headquarters in Kyiv in an interview with public service broadcasters, as reported by the BBC.
“I think that’s unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time,” he added.
Russia has for months been bracing for months for the highly anticipated counteroffensive with Kyiv’s forces largely shifting to defensive positions along most of the 900-mile frontline stretching from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east to Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south.
The UK’s The Times reported that the Zaporizhzhia frontline will likely figure prominently in the counter-offensive. Its recapture would give Kyiv’s forces a chance to push the Russians further south to Melitopol and the opportunity to cut Moscow off from its land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula.
“Nobody knows exactly when the order will come,” one Ukrainian soldier told the news service. “We have to be prepared at every moment.”
The BBC noted that Ukrainian authorities have sought to tamp down expectations that the counteroffensive, if and when it occurs, will signify a breakthrough in the 15-month conflict.
A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said military leaders “understood that [they] needed to be successful” but that the assault should not be considered a “silver bullet” that will end the war.
PRIGOZHIN SAYS UKRAINIAN COUNTEROFFENSIVE ALREADY UNDERWAY IN BAKHMUT
The founder of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force Yevgeny Prigozhin accused Zelenskyy of “being deceptive” in claiming that the counteroffensive has yet to begin.
In remarks published on his Telegram channel Wednesday, Prigozhin said that Ukrainian combat units had already begun their counterattack and that they were approaching Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk region where Wagner’s mercenary fighters have waged a bloody 10-month battle.
Both Prigozhin and the Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that Kyiv’s forces had overpowered a Russian army unit near Bakhmut, according to Reuters.
The Wagner leader reportedly pulled his troops out of Bakhmut on Wednesday after threatening to do so for months amid his longstanding feud with Russia’s military over denied ammunition requests. Ukraine’s military viewed the claim with skepticism. Prigozhin on Wednesday accused a Russian brigade of abandoning their positions in the city, per CNN.
EX-RUSSIAN OFFICIAL CALLS FOR MILITARY MOBILIZATION
The former head of Russia’s space agency openly called on President Vladimir Putin to declare a general mobilization, citing a critical shortage of personnel, Newsweek reported.
“We must bear in mind that the enemy is stronger than us … That’s why we need a mobilization,” Dmitry Rogozin said in a Wednesday radio interview on Russia’s “Moscow Speaks.”
“We have problems with personnel because guys are being wounded, our fighters are being killed. We are losing combat-ready guys. They need to be replenished,” he said.
Rogozin, who also once served as Russia’s deputy prime minister under Putin, said that he now leads a group of advisors called the “Tsar’s Wolves” who provide “military-technical support” to Russian combat units in the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin removed Rogozin as the head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, in July 2022 without explanation.
The Russian leader called up 300,000 reservists and former military personnel in September 2022 but has been reluctant to declare a full mobilization, purportedly fearing a backlash. Doing so would also signify that Putin’s so-called “special military operation” is, in fact, a war. Newsweek noted that military assessments suggest that Russia has been engaged in a “covert” draft for some time.