Russia redoubles airstrikes in anticipation of imminent counteroffensive
Russia has redoubled its air attacks and reinforces its lines on different fronts to stop the announced and imminent counteroffensive by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Russian assault planes and bombers attacked enemy positions in eastern and southern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, reported this Saturday, offering his daily report.
In the sectors of Liman and Donetsk (east), the aviation together with the artillery fire and the actions of the ground troops caused more than 320 fatalities in the Ukrainian ranks, it has assured. The Russian planes also attacked Ukrainian positions south of the city of Donetsk and in the Zaporizhia region, where they caused the enemy “up to 120 deaths,” according to Konashenkov. The general stressed that during the past day the Russian anti-aircraft defense shot down two Storm Shadow cruise missiles, 19 HIMARS rockets, two HARM anti-radar missiles and 12 drones.
According to the adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, Mikhailo Podoliak, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has been underway for several days “with certain military operations.”
In an interview published this Friday on YouTube with the exiled Russian journalist Yulia Latinina, the Ukrainian adviser explained that these military operations are aimed at undermining the defensive capacity of the Russian lines, attacking their command posts and logistics chains. However, the secretary of the National Security Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, disavowed Podoliak, stating that the spring counteroffensive announced by Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has not yet started.
The counteroffensive could start “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or within a week,” Danilov said in an interview with the BBC, in which he indicated that “it would be rare” for him to set a date for one event or another. “We have a very responsible mission before our country. And we know that we have no right to make mistakes,” he stressed. (EFE)
