Ukraine war: Russia says Kyiv massing troops for counter-offensive

A Russian-installed official in southeastern Ukraine said Kyiv’s forces were massing thousands of troops and armour in the region in preparation for a counter-offensive, as heavy fighting continued to the north for the ruined city of Bakhmut.

“More than 10,000 Ukrainian fighters are massing on the front line near the city of Hulyaipole. Heavy military equipment, including tanks, is also being brought there,” occupation official Vladimir Rogov said of the Ukrainian-held city in the Zaporizhzhia region.

“The goal of a possible offensive by Ukrainian militants is access to the Azov Sea, without fighting for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The (Ukrainian) regime believes it will get the nuclear plant after their supposedly successful offensive,” he added.

Kyiv is urging western allies to accelerate deliveries of arms and ammunition to facilitate a spring counter-offensive that many analysts believe will aim to smash Russian lines in southeastern Ukraine, splitting Moscow’s occupation force and severing its land link between the Russian border and occupied Crimea.

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Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on Monday that his country was approaching a “landmark battle” in its modern history.

“Like it or not, we are approaching a landmark battle in Ukraine’s recent history. This is a fact, everyone understands this. When it starts is a secret. But everyone understands that we are approaching this,” Mr Budanov told the RBK-Ukraina news outlet. “As for the volumes and rates of deliveries (of weapons), of course, we would like to intensify and increase them.”

Mr Budanov said the only way to end the war was for Ukraine to regain all its internationally recognised territory – including Crimea – and insisted that it was “totally” realistic to believe that Kyiv’s forces could do so this year.

Ukraine’s military said on Monday that the commander of its ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, was “working today in the areas of hostilities in the Lyman and Bakhmut directions,” referring to two cities in the partly occupied eastern region of Donetsk.

“In the Bakhmut direction, the situation remains tense. Heavy fighting continues. In several suburban districts of Bakhmut, the offensive actions of the enemy failed. However, the enemy does not abandon its goal of encircling Bakhmut and uses all possible forces and means for this,” Col Gen Syrskyi said. “In Bakhmut, our fighters not only carry out defensive actions but also actively counter-attack. This has given us the opportunity to hold back the enemy’s offensive for several months, to prevent any expansion of the front in this direction, and to destroy (Russia’s) best units and win time.”

Russia says its forces in Bakhmut, led by Wagner-group mercenaries, now control much of the regional road and rail hub, which has been devastated by months of intense fighting.

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin publicly criticised Russia’s military chiefs earlier in the war, but relations appear to have improved after Moscow’s political elite made several decisions and statements that were favourable for the mercenary group, which has a reputation for extreme brutality and recruited thousands of convicts into its ranks this year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed on Monday his son had taken part in Russia’s invasion with the notorious group.

Mr Peskov said his son Nikolai had voluntarily served in a Wagner artillery crew, and Mr Prigozhin said he had showed “courage and heroism”.

However, critics disputed the claims about Nikolai Peskov, who was recorded last year telling a prank caller who pretended to be a military official that he would “take this matter to another level” when told that he was being called up to fight in Ukraine.

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet repelled a drone attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol early on Monday morning, the Moscow-installed governor of the city said.

“According to the latest information: one surface drone was destroyed ... the second one exploded on its own,” governor Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Now the city is quiet but all forces and services remain on alert.” No damage was reported, according to Mr Razvozhaev.

Sevastopol, along with the rest of the Crimean peninsula, was declared annexed by Russia in 2014 but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine. Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.