Former US Army General Ben Hodges said in an interview that the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) counteroffensive will begin in a few weeks on the southern front. Deutsche Welle (organization included in the list of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice).
He noted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces “managed” to “hold” Bakhmut (Russian name Artemovsk) for nine months, during which time it was building up forces that it will use in the counterattack on Kiev.
“I think it will start in a few weeks and its purpose will be to isolate the Crimean peninsula and then prevent Russian troops from defending Crimea,” said Hodges.
According to him, in the battle of Bakhmut, the Armed Forces of Ukraine gained time and saved the necessary forces for the counterattack.
Fyodor Venislavsky, formerly the representative of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in the Verkhovna Rada declarationThat the counterattack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will come as a surprise to both the Russians and the Ukrainians.
Prior to that, the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kirill Budanov, said that the Ukrainian army’s counterattack would be “surprising and swift” and that its preparations were “going according to plan”.