Ukraine’s counteroffensive is shrouded in confusion. That may be the plan
Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, has added to speculation that a long-expected massive counteroffensive by Kyiv against Russia’s occupying forces could be imminent.
“The time has come to take back what is ours,” Zaluzhnyi wrote Saturday morning.
Zaluzhnyi’s post comes after about a month of potential hints that a counteroffensive operation could be in the works, including an uptick in certain types of attacks and the deployment of military hardware.
Officially, however, the operation has not begun. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will have final say on when the operation is set to begin. But he may not even do that publicly, to keep Moscow off-balance.
”We are clearly aware of when, where, how and what should start,” Zelensky’s national security adviser, Oleksiy Danilov, told CNN on Tuesday. “The final decision is up to the president … when the decision is made, Russia will definitely feel it.”
It is possible we only learn the counteroffensive has begun when its first tangible results are revealed. A lot of what is happening is not playing out in public, even if the plan is set in stone.