Ukraine made it known on Friday that it was prepared to launch a heavy ground assault in an effort to win back territory that has been taken over by Moscow.
The announcement comes after Russia had carried out heavy missile attacks on cities as people slept through the night, killing at least 23 civilians in the country’s first serious airstrike in almost two months, per Reuters.
Kyiv has reportedly prepared a large-scale counteroffensive that will include hundreds of tanks and other armored vehicles that were sent by Western countries. Earlier this month, the US Department of Defense had announced that it was sending an additional $500 million worth of military weapons to Ukraine.
This came after President Joe Biden had announced in February, during a visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that the US would be equipping Ukraine with $500 million in military aid.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov said of the counteroffensive: “As soon as there is God’s will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it.”
He noted that the country was “to a high percentage ready,” adding that the new weapons would provide an “iron first” in the effort to push Russia out of the country. The Russian missile attacks were the first since early March. Moscow had ordered such attacks almost weekly for most of the winter, which turned out to be the bloodiest time of the conflict in Ukraine, per the report.
However, the attacks were said to have targeted Ukrainian reserve troops, which it had successfully struck, preventing the troops from reaching the front. But Moscow did not offer any evidence to support this, per the BBC.
Kyiv was one such target in the attack, but other cities that came under fire were Kremenchuk and Poltava, as well as Mykolaiv in the south, according to the report.
It is unknown how heavy Kyiv will strike back, given that they are now equipped with more weapons than they were the last time such an attack was carried out.
