Reserve formation in Ukraine
Zelenskyj advisor: Two months left for the spring offensive
03/10/2023 2:11 p.m
How long will preparations for Ukraine’s planned spring offensive take? Military experts have speculated about this for a long time. Selenskyj advisor Podoljak now names a period. However, the 51-year-old makes no statement about the thrust of the planned counter-offensive.
According to Ukraine, it still needs two months to build up reserves for the planned spring offensive. “We need to increase the supply of heavy artillery shells of 155 mm caliber and long-range missiles,” said adviser to the presidential office in Kiev, Mykhailo Podoliak, in an interview published in the Italian newspaper “La Stampa”. Independent military experts had previously given an earlier date for a possible counterattack by Kiev.
Podoljak put the need for armored vehicles to liberate other occupied areas at 400 to 500. Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Salushnyi had given a similar number in the past. According to Podoljak, combat aircraft are also necessary to intercept ballistic missiles and control the airspace.
The 51-year-old made no statement about the thrust of the planned counter-offensive. At the same time, Russia has few options for its own offensive actions. “Active enemy offensive actions will continue in the direction of Bakhmut, Wuhledar, Lyman and Soledar,” predicted Podoljak. At the same time, Russia is preparing for a Ukrainian push towards the Crimean Peninsula, annexed in 2014.
Russia wants to proceed “asymmetrically”.
“Everything is going according to plan,” said the Kremlin’s head of the region, Sergey Aksyonov, in an interview with the state news agency Ria Novosti. Experiences from the current combat operations were taken into account. “We’re taking an atypical, asymmetrical approach,” said the 50-year-old.
Satellite images had revealed extended fortification lines at the isthmus to the peninsula. In addition, according to similar recordings, trenches have already been dug on beaches on the peninsula. Russia invaded Ukraine a good year ago and, including Crimea, occupies a good fifth of Ukraine’s territory.