Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Ukraine is ready to launch a long-awaited offensive against Russian forces. It could happen tomorrow or within a week.
Danilov refused to give a date for the start of the attack on the Russian occupation forces, but said that it could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week”.
He warned that the Ukrainian government “he has no right to make a mistake” regarding the offensive. “We must understand that we must not waste this historic opportunity that God has given us to truly become an independent, great European country,” he said.
Danilov was on the phone with the BBC, which reports that the call was interrupted by a message from the president Volodymyr Zelenskywho called Danilov to a meeting about the offensive.
During the interview, Danilov also confirmed that some of Wagner’s units were withdrawing from Bahmut, the scene of the bloodiest battle of this war so far. He added, however, that they were redeployed to three other locations and that their withdrawal does not mean that they will stop fighting.
Ukraine had been planning the offensive against Russian forces for months, wanting to buy as much time as possible to train troops and receive as much military aid as possible from the West. During this time, the Russian army was preparing its defenses.
Danilov said the armed forces would launch an attack when commanders judged it would achieve the best result. Kiev needs to show the Ukrainian people and Western allies that it is capable of breaking through Russian lines and retaking some Ukrainian territory.
He defended the decision of the Ukrainian army to fight for several months in To Bahmutin which a large number of its members died. “Bahmut is our land, our territory, we must defend it,” he said. If they started to leave every settlement, they would retreat to Ukraine’s western border, just as Putin wanted from the start of the war, he added.
Kiev: Russia is planning an incident at a nuclear power plant
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has announced that Russia is planning to simulate a major incident at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant under its control, in order to try to hinder the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the Guardian reports.
Defense Department intelligence says Russian forces will soon shell the plant, then announce radioactive fallout. This would force an international investigation, at the time which ones all hostilities would be suspended. The Ministry did not support the allegations with evidence.
Explosion in Russia near the border with Belarus
Governor in Russian the region Pskov near the border with Belarus Mihail Vedernikov said that an attack had occurred two drones, in which the administration building of the oil pipeline was damaged. According to him, there were no victims. The attack took place near the village of Litvinovo, less than 10 kilometers from the border.
Vedernikov otherwise, he did not blame Ukraine, but Moscow has already blamed Kyiv for similar incidents in the past.
Source: Rtvslo
