“(Gerasimov) was at one of the advanced command posts,” the ministry said.
COUNTER-OFFENSIVE?
For months, Ukraine has been preparing for a counter-offensive against Russian forces which officials in Kyiv and CIA Director William Burns have said will pierce Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hubris.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Saturday that he was ready to launch the counteroffensive but tempered a forecast of success with a warning that it could take some time and come at a heavy cost.
“I don’t know how long it will take,” he told The Journal. “To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready.”
After seeking tens of billions of dollars of Western weapons to fight Russian forces, the success or failure of the counter-offensive is likely to influence the shape of future Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.
Ukraine has in recent weeks sought to weaken Russian positions but its specific plans have been shrouded in secrecy as it seeks to strike yet another blow against the much larger military of Russia.
Moscow was last month struck by drones which Russia said was a Ukrainian terrorist attack while pro-Ukrainian forces have repeatedly crossed into Russia proper in recent days in the Belgorod region.
WAR IN UKRAINE
Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb 24 last year in what the Kremlin expected to be a swift operation but its forces suffered a series of defeats and had to move back and regroup in swathes of eastern Ukraine.
Russia now controls at least 18 per cent of what is internationally recognised to be Ukrainian territory, and has claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory.
For months, tens of thousands of Russian troops have been digging in along a front line which stretches for around 1,000km, bracing for a Ukrainian attack which is expected to try to cut Russia’s so-called land bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Ukraine says it will not rest until it has ejected every last Russian soldier from its territory, and casts the invasion as an imperial-style land grab by Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power.
Russia says the war is escalating and says the West is fighting what amounts to a hybrid war against Russia which is aimed at sowing discord and ultimately carving up Russia’s vast natural resources.
The West says it wants Ukraine to defeat Russia but denies that it wants to destroy Russia. US President Joe Biden said last year that a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would mean World War III.
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