Despite the fact that a Ukrainian counteroffensive was expected for the beginning of 2023, it has not yet arrived, although it seems to be getting closer.. This Thursday, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelensky, stated that Ukraine is not yet fully prepared to launch this counterattack. However, the leader of Wagner has assured that the counteroffensive is already “going at full speed”. Despite the uncertainty and the exchange of opinions, both sides continue to prepare the offensive without leaving the front.

After more than a year and two months of war, the conflict has been going on for weeks like an express pot, waiting for the moment of that great offensive that has not yet arrived. Zelensky, for his part, has been cautious with the advances that Ukraine is making on the battlefield.. This Thursday, without going any further, he has asserted that, although some combat brigades are already “ready” for the battle, his counteroffensive is not yet ready, since the Army still needs “some things.”

“With what we already have we can go ahead and, I think, be successful, but we would lose a lot of people.. I think that is unacceptable. so we have to wait. We still need a little more time,” he said.

For its part, Russian reactions have not been long in coming. The head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgheni Prigozhin, has considered Zelenski's words a “ruse”, and has detailed that the counteroffensive “is already underway”, as he explained in his Telegram account.

According to Prigozhin, the Ukrainian army “attacks from the flanks on the Bakhmut front and, unfortunately, in some places successfully. As I have said many times, the Ukrainian army's plan is already underway, we crush them, they crush us,” he said.

The Wagner leader also took advantage of his intervention to make a prediction of what the Ukrainian attacks could be. Prigozhin affirmed that Ukraine will seek to break Bakhmut, to later attack “Bryansk, Belgorod, with the entry into Russian territory, and Zaporizhia.”

Regarding the Ukrainian units trained in the West, he assured that they are already participating in the counteroffensive. “They are already fully involved and after they test their strength and warm up their muscles, they will head north and south,” he said.

border bombing

Despite not being an official counteroffensive, Ukraine does not cease its attacks. In this way, the authorities of the Russian regions of Briansk and Kursk -bordering Ukraine- denounced this Thursday Ukrainian attacks against a refinery and a power station. “A Ukrainian drone has attacked the Klintsi refinery. There are no injuries,” Bryansk Governor Alexandr Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.

In the same way, and as a consequence of the Ukrainian attacks, the mayor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, affirmed that seven settlements in the Russian region were left without electricity after the Ukrainian bombardment on the border. Tass, Russia's state news agency, reported that the shells damaged a power line in the village of Cheremoshnoe.. Gladkov said there were no casualties.

“Very difficult” situation in the Kremlin

With Ukraine threatening to attack, the Kremlin has acknowledged that the Russian military campaign in Ukraine is “very difficult” and is still far from achieving all its stated objectives. “The special military operation continues. It is a very difficult operation and, of course, certain objectives have been achieved in a year,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, according to the official Tass agency.

The Kremlin representative recalled that Putin gave the order to guarantee the “security” of the residents of Donbas in the first place, something that, he admitted, has only been partially achieved. “This task has been partially solved, but only partially. That is why the operation will still continue,” Peskov stressed.

Ukraine prepares conscientiously

Given the situation, both sides continue to arm themselves in one way or another so that they are not caught unprotected.. In the case of Ukraine, the United Kingdom announced this Thursday that it is going to donate long-range missiles to support Zelensky's troops. “Today I can confirm that the UK is going to donate 'Storm shadow' missiles to Ukraine,” said Ben Wallace, UK Defense Minister.

Likewise, the United States has also ruled on an increase in donations to Ukraine, more specifically on F-16 fighter jets.. For this reason, the army of the American country has ruled out, for the moment, delivering this type of weapon to Ukraine, since “they are very expensive.”

Dave Butler, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Army, also wanted to emphasize that this “refusal” is also due to lack of resources.. “The Russians have more than 500 fighters and to be able to provide the Ukrainians with the same number of F-16s would require more resources than our government has allowed us at this time,” he snapped.

Russia 'defends itself'

Thus, in this day of 'bickering', Russia, which is already expecting a counter-offensive from Ukraine, has also announced that approximately 12,000 citizens have already left the surroundings of Zaporizhia. Last Friday, the governor of the town, Yevgueni Balitski, warned of the evacuation of the area due to fear of a Ukrainian attack, which has not yet officially begun.

In addition, according to the Intelligence services of the United Kingdom, the Kremlin “has accelerated a program to recruit Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine.”. It is likely that up to 10,000 convicts have signed in April alone,” they said, according to a statement posted by the British Ministry of Defense via Twitter.