Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military company, suggested that Ukraine’s forces will press forward with an offensive, but he warned that heavy slush makes such an operation unlikely right now. This claim was circulated by Prigozhin’s press office via a telegraph channel.
He said Ukraine’s counteroffensive would not begin today for practical reasons linked to severe sleet.
“Today in the region, even pickup trucks struggle to move through the fields, let alone the Urals, heavy equipment, or tanks. The soil needs about ten days to dry”, Prigozhin commented.
Prigozhin questioned how the Ukrainian Armed Forces could launch an assault under these conditions, noting that the Ukrainian side would decide their own moves and that he did not have the latest information on those plans. He added that while Ukraine was preparing an attack, everyone must be ready to respond decisively, recalling past cautions from 1941.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, after a meeting of the contact group at Ramstein Air Base, stated that Ukraine would achieve its objectives at an appropriate time.
On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special operation in response to requests for assistance from the heads of the LPR and DPR to protect Donbass. This decision led to new sanctions from the United States and its allies, underlining the geopolitical stakes involved.
These developments were reported through ongoing online broadcasts from various outlets, with observers noting the evolving statements from officials and leaders on the ground.
[Attribution: publicly available reporting and official briefings compiled from multiple sources]